Less than a week after losing to the defending champs in convincing fashion the Calgary Flames turned the tables Friday night on home soil.
The scoreboard suggests the game was dead even but that wasn't the case as the Flames outshot the Blackhawks 37-19 and finished the game with eight more scoring chances in their overtime win.
Notes:
1) Given how poorly the year started for Karri Ramo I'll start with him. He wasn't tested a ton but he was good when called upon making 18 stops; including a ridiculous glove save on Marcus Kruger. After a dreadful start to the year Ramo has posted a .900 save percentage or better in six of his last eight games after doing that just once in his first five. Of late he has given the Flames a chance more often than not and the wins are coming much more frequently as a result. Imagine that.
2) Sean Monahan has been on and off for much of the year but he was certainly at his best in this one. He had a game-high nine shot attempts, a game-high seven scoring chances, five shots and a goal in the win while driving possession at a 70% rate. He was causing havoc from start to finish despite playing primarily against Jonathan Toews' line and Duncan Keith's defense pairing. That's not easy to do.
3) I can't talk about Monahan without mentioning his linemate Johnny Gaudreau, who also played a whale of a game. He had six shots, an assist on Monahan's goal, and he scored the OT winner on an incredible individual effort when he decided to take the game into his own hands and put the Blackhawks away.
4) Overtime didn't last very long but I thought the Flames did an excellent job of hemming the Blackhawks in their own zone and not allowing their world class skill players any opportunities to win the game. They only need one chance to make teams pay and the Flames didn't give them that. Well done.
5) T.J. Brodie went into beast mode once again as he controlled play at both ends of the ice while logging a game-high 31:43 in the win. To put Brodie's ice time in perspective he played about five minutes more than Duncan Keith and about six minutes more than Mark Giordano. I don't think enough people realize how insanely good Brodie is.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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