Following a day of feasting hosted by JVR and after a tough loss to Montreal, could the Jackets get a win before hitting the road? Chinakhov (banged up) and Tarasov (illness) were both scratches for this game, Sillinger returned to the lineup after missing one game.
1st Period
Both teams traded chances off the post in the early going. Neither team really able to get things controlled, a fair amount of blocked shots and NZ turnovers to start.
A power play chance for the home team ten minutes in after a Kadri holding. A good chance early on a bumper pass to Monahan, followed by ninety seconds of inability to get set. As the PP came to an end, Fantilli shot a wrister from the half-wall that deflected off Wolf’s glove, off the post, and in. Technically an even strength goal, but Fantilli’s first goal since October.
CBJ Goal 1-0: Fantilli (Provorov) 11:56
With just over 3 minutes remaining a Kadri feed to the offensive blue line bounced off the stick of a Flames defender with KJ and Sillinger in the vicinity to create a two on one opportunity. Kent carried the puck in and elected to shoot instead of pass, ripping it past Wolf to increase the lead to 2. Kent Johnson has registered a point in all eight games he’s played so far this season.
CBJ Goal 2-0: Johnson (Sillinger) 16:42
Marchenko with a breakaway chance to end the period but no goals to close it. Midway through Calgary led in shots, but it was all CBJ to close. CBJ with a lead in shots on goal 16-10, and 5v5 xG of 1.14-0.71.
2nd Period
Early story was Christiansen fighting a Flame following a clean hit. This was just a precursor for what was to come. Shortly after, the Jackets went to work on the forecheck and Voronkov made a terrific play to find Marchenko in the slot. He deked around Wolf to draw him out of position before putting the puck back towards the crease where Werenski found the puck and sent home his 8th of the year.
CBJ Goal 3-0: Werenski (Marchenko, Voronkov) 4:56
Twelve minutes in Olivier boarded Hanley and followed it up with a fight of two Flames. Olivier did not get a major for the hit despite Hanley heading to the locker room. He did get a major for the fighting along with Pospisil (his second of the period) and no power play for Calgary as Pachal of the Flames was assigned a roughing minor.
Flames get their first goal of the game 15 minutes in. Elvis makes a nice save on a cross-slot pass but Provorov fans on the clear and Coleman gets the rebound behind Elvis.
CGY Goal 3-1: Coleman (Andersson, Bahl) 4:56
A second fight for Olivier with 30 seconds remaining. Lomberg wanted to fight on Olivier’s next shift, Calgary still not satisfied after the boarding call. Give Lomberg credit for hanging in there, but I don’t know why anyone would want to fight Olivier right now.
Period ends with the same lead as the first, shots 25-18 CBJ. Flames with the 5v5 xG edge in the second to even it out ~1.5 xG per team for the game.
3rd Period
The second period was chippy and the third picked up right where it left off. A few minutes in, a scramble in front of Elvis leads to a brawl with Elvis throwing some punches at Weegar after a late poke from the forward aggravated the tender. Minor assessed to the goalie for throwing punches with the blocker, and Calgary gets it’s first man advantage.
Nothing doing for the Flames on the power play. Just after the penalty concluded Fantilli came out of the box and joined Marchenko on a two on one rush. Marchenko sold the shot before setting a wonderful pass for Fantilli to finish. His second of the game.
CBJ Goal 4-1: Fantilli (Marchenko, Fabbro) 4:46
Halfway through the period the Flames went back on the PP after a KJ trip. Kadri entered the zone 30 seconds into the opportunity and beat Elvis clean to bring the lead back down to 2.
CGY Goal 4-2: Kadri PP (Pospisil, Wolf) 11:00
Wolf pulled with 3 minutes left to create a 6 on 5. A few chances for the Flames before Werenski cleanly stole the puck from Weegar and hit a breaking Marchenko who sealed the game with an empty netter.
CBJ Goal 5-2: Marchenko EN (Voronkov, Werenski) 18:20
5-2 final, shots 34-29 Jackets, xG in all situations also favored the Jackets 3.75-2.77.
Final Thoughts
Fun game! Bit of a slow start but after the first power play there was plenty of juice in this matinee. I didn’t expect much from this Calgary team in the pre-season but there’s definitely some life in their play. They seemed to struggle to connect play through the neutral zone as the CBJ did a good job of being in the way a lot of the time. The Jackets got 4 past Wolf but you could see why his numbers have been good this season. Hopefully Jet got a good chance to observe while on the bench.
Forwards: Good to get Fantilli back in the goal column, that line with KJ and Silly is fun. There was quite a bit of physicality and after the whistle antics in this one but Olivier’s presence continues to impact the opponents. Just want to note how fun Voronkov is in the offensive zone. He has complete confidence that he can out-muscle anyone and it shows as you watch him go into puck battles. He’s great at leveraging that into quick passes into dangerous areas.
Defense: Werenski stays unbelievably hot, but I wanted to highlight just how solid Dante Fabbro has been. Nice addition to the blue line.
Goaltending: Outside of a few illegal punches, Elvis was solid in this game. The Montreal game had a strange flow to it, but Elvis was in control for all of this one (during play).
Up Next
Good way to send the team off on a road trip, it’ll be interesting to see if any of the hostilities from this one carry over when these teams meet again in four days. The Jackets start their road trip in Chicago on Sunday with another 3pm puck drop.