The Calgary Flames (28-22-8) traveled to Florida to play the red hot Tampa Bay Lightning, following one of their best games of the year on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the visitors didn’t get a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 27 saves for a 3-0 shutout win, his first career shutout against Calgary.
The Flames are now 1-1-0 on a pivotal road trip. On Saturday afternoon, they will face the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. However, before anyone gets ahead of themselves, let’s discuss the loss to the Lightning.
Sometimes teams just run into a hot goalie who stops pucks efficiently. That happened Thursday night at Amalie Arena, as Vasilevskiy was unbeatable for his fourth shutout of the season.
Although the Flames outshot the Lightning, won more face-offs, and were the more physical team, they didn’t have any answers for the home goalie who only got busier as the game progressed.
Ultimately, in a contest featuring two of the game’s best goalies, the Flames couldn’t score thus placing more pressure on Dustin Wolf to be perfect. He still made 20 saves with an even strength and power-play goal against.
In the past two games, the Flames’ fourth line of Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Rooney, and Martin Pospisil have been one of their strongest, with two goals and three assists. Despite not scoring against the Lightning, the trio kept things interesting again.
They were physical, with a combined nine hits, while Lomberg had two good scoring chances. Meanwhile, only Rooney played more than ten minutes (11:26), getting a few extra minutes than his linemates, but together, they were key in keeping Calgary in the game.
The Flames exerted much energy to shut down the Washington Capitals two nights ago. Following that, they headed to Tampa Bay hoping to average an 8-3 loss in December. Even though that didn’t happen, there is no reason Calgary should hang their heads.
Wolf played tremendously and gave his team every chance to win. The Flames pressed several…