The final scoreline probably made the Calgary Flames’ loss to the Dallas Stars look worse than it was.
There’s not much positive spin you can put on a 6-2 defeat, though.
The Flames (13-9-5) may have given as good as they got for two-and-a-half periods, but they unravelled in the third and were soundly defeated by the Stars (17-10-0) as their road losing streak stretched to eight games. Sure, a couple of those losses have come in shootouts and overtime, but that’s not really the point.
“We’ve got to figure out something on the road to get some wins. That was a really good team on the other side, but I thought we were in the game for most of it five-on-five,” Flames winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who scored the team’s opener, told reporters in Dallas. “We can’t get frustrated, we’ve got to stay positive and find a way to get a win. (Tuesday against the Nashville Predators) is our final road game before Christmas, so I think that’s the one we need to focus on. Tomorrow is a new day. Regroup and go back on Tuesday.”
The Flames were tied 2-2 about five minutes into the third period and had actually looked like the team more likely to score a go-ahead goal in the early minutes of the final frame, but then … well, the wheels came off.
Four goals in 14 minutes for the Stars put the game well out of reach and the Flames were left wondering what they can do to replicate their play at the Saddledome when they’re away from home.
Here’s three takeaways from Sunday’s loss:
- ROAD WOES
As we just mentioned, the losses are piling up on the road for the Flames and the defensive style they pride themselves on playing at home just isn’t working when they’re out of town.
They’ve now allowed 17 goals in their last three road games.
They’re allowing an average of 3.71 goals per game on the road this season, compared to a 2.21 when they’re playing at the Saddledome.
“It gets into your head a little bit, you know you haven’t won in a little while on the road,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said last week. “Guys maybe squeeze their sticks a little too hard and want to win, it’s little things like that. We know we’ve got to turn it around.”
Again, the Flames did play a pretty decent game for long stretches on Sunday. It wasn’t until Sam Steel and Thomas Harley scored a minute apart midway through the third period that the game truly felt over — their goals made it 5-2 — but you can’t ignore what the numbers are saying.
And they’re pretty ugly on the road right now.
- TOUGH NIGHT
You can’t pin a 6-2 loss on one or two players. There was plenty of blame to go around, especially in the third period.
It was a night that Kevin Bahl will want to forget, though.
The towering blueliner has been great since being acquired in the trade that sent Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils this summer and has provided a dependable top-pairing partner for Rasmus Andersson all season.
On Sunday, though, he was a minus-five and picked up four penalty minutes.
Andersson, meanwhile, was a minus-four.
Plus/minus is an imperfect stat and — again — nobody is blaming the loss on Bahl or Andersson. More than anything, it’s a reminder that even really good players can have bad games.
And really, there won’t be many players in the Flames’ locker-room who will be feeling like they showed their best against the Stars. Dustin Wolf certainly won’t be happy to have allowed six goals on 28 shots.
The most important thing is going to be bouncing back against the Predators on Tuesday.
- FINDING A POSITIVE
In the interest of not being entirely negative about a game where the Flames actually played pretty well for stretches, let’s use this final takeaway to point out that the Flames penalty-kill actually had a very good game.
It held the Stars off the scoresheet in four attempts with the man-advantage, which is a major step up for a unit that was allowing an average of one goal per-game in its previous 10.
Jakob Pelletier was given a shot, playing 2:30, while Jake Bean also got substantially more time on the PK (2:18) than he has been in most of the games he’s played this season.
It was a step in the right direction for a unit that’s been under fire recently.