Matt Coronato might not be playing many more games for the Calgary Wranglers.
The Calgary Flames sent the 21-year-old to their AHL affiliate a couple weeks ago, but he was recalled by the NHL club last Friday.
On Tuesday, he saved the day and helped the Flames (7-5-1) earn a 3-2 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens (4-7-2) in a game they came awfully close to losing with two clutch, big-time goals.
The first came with less than three minutes left in the third-period and the Flames down 2-1. Coronato collected a loose puck in the Habs’ zone, shook off a defender and then fired a shot with pinpoint accuracy past Sam Montembeault.
Then, in overtime, head coach Ryan Huska decided to ride the hot hand and start Coronato from the opening faceoff. It took him all of seven seconds to put the Habs to bed as he collected the puck at centre ice and then took it in alone before blasting his second goal of the night into the back of the Canadiens net.
It was the fastest overtime goal in Flames history and was just one second shy of the fastest goal to begin an OT in NHL history. Only six players have ever managed to end a game in sudden-death in six seconds.
“The kid can shoot it, a couple big ones,” said Coronato’s linemate Blake Coleman, when asked about the goals by reporters post-game. “He’s really talented and he’s a hardworking kid and he’s humble, he brings a lot to the table.
“He brings a lot of energy and has the high-end ability to make plays like you saw tonight and shoot the puck, but he doesn’t sit around on the outside of the game. He gets in there and mixes it up and plays a lot bigger than he is.”
Here’s three takeaways from Tuesday night’s game in La Belle Province:
1.YOUTH IS SERVED
Coronato’s heroics will rightfully steal the headlines, but he wasn’t the only young player who stepped up in a big way for the Flames against the Canadiens.
Connor Zary opened the scoring for the Flames with a great individual effort. After being demoted to fourth-line duties on Sunday night against the Edmonton Oilers, it was exactly the sort of response you’d want.
And Dustin Wolf was excellent in net, plain and simple, especially in the first-period when the Habs seized the game’s momentum. By night’s end, he had turned away 21-of-23 shots and should be credited with keeping the Flames in the game.
It’s worth noting that Zary and Wolf are both only 23-years-old. Only Coronato is even younger, at 21, so it’s certainly encouraging that the team’s youngest players were able to step up and be the difference-makers in the game.
And Coronato can probably expect to be with the Flames for the foreseeable future, especially as Anthony Mantha left the game in the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return.
“I thought he was very competitive, those were two great individual plays where he put himself in a position where he was able to show off his shot,” Huska told reporters in Montreal. “That’s what he’s all about, so I’m really excited for him. Sometimes when you play with (Mikael Backlund and Coleman) they have a tendency to elevate a player because they’re like a security blanket at times, but I think he handled himself on his own and didn’t need that blanket tonight and found a way to get two big goals for us.”
2. POWER OUTAGE CONTINUES
I apologize if this is getting repetitive, but the Flames continue to search for answers on the power-play. It just isn’t clicking right now.
Yes, they managed one against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night, but other than that they’re on a 1-for-23 run dating back to the first period of their loss to the Seattle Kraken on October 19.
Making that even worse? They’ve allowed two shorthanded goals over that stretch, including Joel Armia’s third-period shortie on Tuesday night. That means that they’re literally getting out-scored when they’ve got the man-advantage over their last eight games.
Faceoffs and zone entries have both been mentioned as reasons for why they’re struggling and Huska hasn’t hesitated to change-up the personnel.
It’s an area the Flames need to figure out soon, plain and simple.
“Five-on-five there’s some things that are happening for us, I like the effort we have from just about everybody in our lineup, we just want to try and get the other side of the game going, as well,” Huska told reporters.
3. EARLY WOES
The Flames and Habs left the ice for first intermission locked in a scoreless tie, and given the way things have gone recently in the opening 20 minutes of games for the Calgary crew, that was an improvement.
Over their previous six games, the Flames had been outscored 8-1 in first periods, and they’ve scored seven while allowing 14 in the opening frames of their 13 games so far this year.
It doesn’t seem like a complete coincidence that they’d also gone 1-5-0 over that recent six-game stretch in which they’ve found themselves playing from behind so often, and players have been open about needing to start games stronger when they’ve spoken with the media after games.
Now, it’s worth noting that the Canadiens were the better team in the first period on Tuesday night. They out-shot the Flames 15-10 and the visitors at the Bell Centre were fortunate to have a locked-in Wolf turning away pucks.
But with the way things have been going recently, heading to the lockerroom tied after 20 minutes is still an improvement.
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