Beyond the Boxscore: Kiprusoff night in Calgary ends with electrifying comeback victory

Taken By Chance – The fourth line duo of Rooney and Pelletier achieved no high danger chances – for or against – in their ice time tonight. No event hockey does not hurt your team and as such I celebrate it. Would you like some more offence? Sure! In the meantime at least they aren’t a detriment to your nightly success. They missed so much time and are still getting up to proper game speed, Calgary’s in a position where letting them ease into that playing 10 minutes or less is feasible.

xG Breakdown – 

xGF% – Andrei Kuzmenko (20.83%) got limited again – rightfully so he was having a very rough night. This is exactly what the Flames signed up for when they chose to acquire this player in the Lindholm return if they can work through the issues there’s a talented offensive player on the other side. On the positive side of things, I’m wanting to shout out Andrew Mangiapane (62.38%) who has looked massively improved of late. The last month being reunited with Backlund (60.85%) he has had more successful charges into the offensive zone and is back finding chances in or around the blue paint at least once a period. Don’t write him off too quickly folks, he wasn’t the only one who struggled next to Lindholm this year. Back in a familiar environment he is starting to thrive once again.

Game Flow – 

Game Score –

Shot Heatmap – 

In The Crease – There’s not much else to say about Markstrom’s ability to focus being at the highest of levels after this game. For the last 48 hours the soundbite from the scrum where he talks about his situation in Calgary was playing on loop everywhere. The outside noise is extremely loud and he shows up to honour one of the two greatest goaltenders in Flames history with another standard solid performance. Markstrom is being nothing but professional in all this, I take no issue with him voicing his displeasure. 2.16 expected goals against at 5v5, two against.

Player Spotlight – Miikka Kiprusoff – For 9 years the Flames got to watch excellence in virtually every single game that was scheduled. His run of 70+ games in 7 straight years (by a goaltender) may never be replicated with where the league has evolved in terms of goaltender usage. He was a special player immediately upon arrival and gave a spiritual boost to the city of Calgary in such a unique way. Just hearing the name Kipper brings a smile to every Flames fan that got the pleasure of watching him – old & young. Now he is etched in Flames lore exactly where he belongs, a true legend whose number will fly in Calgary for eternity. Thank you for all the great memories, Kipper.

The Goals – 

Flashalytic’s 3 Stars – 

1) Yegor Sharangovich

2) Jacob Markstrom

3) Mikael Backlund

HM) Nazem Kadri because that goal was just filthy

(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)