The Blues warned another Monday morning about what could happen in Calgary if they didn’t keep the same focus that won them games over three Western Conference powers last week.
The warnings didn’t help, and a chance to climb atop the conference standings alone fell by the wayside.
The Blues fell 7-4 to the Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome, ending their six-game winning streak to a team that entered the night tied for last in the conference. With Dallas idle, the club remained in a tie with Stars for first place with 91 points.
Michael Frolik scored two short-handed goals, his second one sealing the win with 3 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in regulation after the Blues had pulled to within 5-4 on Paul Stastny’s second goal of the game with 6:29 left.
Frolik added an empty-netter for the hattrick, as the Flames finished with the most goals by an opponent this season.
After getting through a treacherous week in their schedule, beating Dallas, Anaheim and Chicago, the Blues began a stretch Monday in which they would play three straight teams not in the playoff picture.
At a meeting prior to their morning skate, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock and several players acknowledged that the point of not taking their upcoming opponents lightly, beginning with Calgary. But in a game that had several fluky bounces early, the Flames separated themselves as the hungrier club with a three-goal second period.
Sean Monahan snapped a 2-2 tie with the first of his two goals Monday, and when Mark Giordano scored for a 4-2 lead, the Blues pulled goalie Jake Allen. Allen allowed four goals on 17 shots before being replaced by Anders Nilsson, who allowed two goals on 14 shots in his debut with the club.
Thus, the Blues’ run of six straight wins over Calgary, and no regulation losses in their last nine meetings came to an end.
The first period was bizarre to say the least. There were four goals and two of the assists belonged to a stanchion and a
referee.
The Flames opened the scoring just past the midway point of the first period on a goal by Joe Colborne. Actually, he was just the beneficiary of a fluky bounce off the glass.
Teammate Dougie Hamilton dumped the puck into the offensive zone and Lance Bouma got a piece of it on the way in. With the puck ready to rim around the corner, Allen skated behind net to play it, but he could only watch helplessly when instead it ricocheted in front to Colborne, who had a wide-open tap-in for a 1-0 lead.
Only nine seconds later, Scottie Upshall pulled the Blues even, scoring his sixth goal of the season on another dump-in off the boards. Colton Parayko put the puck into the offensive zone, bouncing it off the end boards. Upshall skated hard to the rebound and, in one motion, put a wrist shot over the near shoulder of Calgary goalie Joni Ortio. Just like that, the game was tied 1-1 with 9:27 remaining in the opening period.
The weird bounces continued, but the next one benefited the Blues. Troy Brouwer put a shot on net that Ortio turned away. But the rebound hit off referee Frederick L’Ecuyer and dropped near the crease, where Paul Stastny backhanded it in for his sixth goal of the season. That goal, with 7:46 left in the period, would represent the Blues’ last lead.
Calgary took tied the scored, 2-2, on a short-handed goal with 3:18 left in the period. The Flames’ Mikael Backlund stripped Jaden Schwartz of the puck on the wall, and put teammate Michael Frolik on a breakaway, and he put the puck past Allen at the other end.
The score was knotted at the first intermission, but Monahan put Calgary ahead again early in the second period. The Blues failed to clear a puck, allowing Monahan to waltz in for a wide-open shot that he buried for a 3-2 advantage.
The Flames stretched it to 4-2 with a power-play goal in the middle of the period, one that stood after a challenge from the Blues.
A shot from the point from Giordano got past Allen, who appeared to get brushed by Colborne in front of the net as the puck went in. The call on the ice was a goal, and an official review confirmed that.
After the ruling, Allen’s night was done. Calgary’s night wasn’t. Monahan added his second goal of the game, taking a stretch pass from Dougie Hamilton and beating Nilsson for a 5-2 lead with 6:23 left in the period.
The name of the goalie didn’t seem to matter Monday, as the Blues looked slow, caught flat-footed on several second-period breakaways. In fact, with 22 seconds left in the period, Nilsson kept it a three-goal game, gloving a breakaway by Micheal Ferland.
The Blues had thought they trimmed into their three-goal deficit with two seconds left in the period. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored, but officials waved off the goal because David Backes was laying on top of Ortio, after being crosschecked into the netminder.
There was no call on Wideman, and so the Flames’ large lead remained intact heading into the third period.
A power-play goal by Kevin Shattenkirk, his 13th of the season and third in the last two games, made it 5-3 just 3:18 into the period.
Stastny’s second of the game and eighth of the season pulled them to within one goal, but Frolik followed with his second short-handed goal and later an empty-netter to send the Blues to a lowly loss.