Montreal Canadiens have defeated the Calgary Flames on the road, after an overtime thriller. It was Max Domi who saved the guests, with his sixth goal of the season.
With 1:08 until the end of an OT, Domi got the possession of the puck and quickly went towards the Flames’ net. After seeing that he might not be able to go all the way, the 24-year old decided to take a shot from a distance. And it worked.
“I was absolutely out of gas, to be honest,” Domi admitted following the match. “The shift before that we were dancing around pretty good and didn’t score.”
He stated that having Mark Giordano in front of him was the crucial factor why he took the shoot so far away from the goal. In those moments, Domi knew that he wouldn’t stand a chance against one of the best defenders in the league.
“I knew I wasn’t going to beat him at the end of a shift like that. Just figured I’d shoot it through him and got lucky with the shot.”
However, nothing indicated such an ending after the first period. Back then, the Flames dictated the tempo, and although the guests had more shots and were kinda dominant, Calgary gained a 2-0 lead.
Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm scored a goal each, with the note that the latter one came on a power-play after Phillip Danault’s tripping.
A fierce fight took place in the middle frame, and the guests managed to come back midway through the sequence. Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia tied the score, shifting the momentum on the Canadiens’ side.
However, the hosts responded first in the third. Oliver Kylington’s first score of the campaign put the Flames up by one, with 6:25 into the period. He sent a nice wrist shot, and Carey Price couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Nick Suzuki restored a tie with 8:02 left and forced overtime in which his team took two points, and continued the series of good results. Over the recent eight games, Montreal has six wins and two losses, and it could be said that they fully recovered from a bad stretch of eight consecutive events in which they didn’t win.
On the other side, the Flames’ players were frustrated with the way the game ended. This was the third loss for them in a row.
“We’re not satisfied with a point,” Tkachuk said. “We were up 2-0 at one point in the game and up 3-2 with 10 minutes left.”
It is easy to understand Flames’ leader because not so long ago, his team was red-hot with seven consecutive wins. Right now, they sit at No.8 in the West with 18-14-5. The next three games Flames have are all on the road, against the Stars, Wild, and the Oilers.
Canadiens (17-12-6) have five road-matches coming up. The first is in Edmonton on Saturday, then in Winnipeg against the Jets before traveling to Tampa Bay, Sunrise, and Raleigh.
