CAPTAIN MARVEL
Giordano scores 100th career goal as Flames rebound to dump Canucks
By
ARI YANOVER @NHLFlames / calgaryflames.com
"For me it's a pretty special accomplishment," Giordano said. "It'll be pretty cool thinking back to when I first started playing. To get 100 in this league is not easy, so yeah, pretty cool."
Travis Hamonic scored his first as a Flame, and Dougie Hamilton got two goals. Johnny Gaudreau rounded out the scoring, with Jaromir Jagr registering his first point as a Flame on his goal, and Mike Smith made 27 of 29 saves en route to his 199th career win.
"Sometimes you gotta go with how your goalie is feeling," coach Glen Gulutzan said on his decision to start Smith on back-to-back nights. "And his workload, and we just think we've been getting outstanding goaltending, so that was the decision. Coming into this game, too, there's also a factor of how well he plays the puck and when you're back-to-back that can save some wear and tear on your defence. So we factored all of that in."
Derek Dorsett and Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks.
Giordano's goal came just as the Flames finished killing off a 1:11-long five-on-three. With Freddie Hamilton out of the box, Troy Brouwer collected the puck and all of a sudden, the Flames found themselves moving up the ice on a three-on-one shorthanded, with Giordano being the trail man. He took Freddie Hamilton's cross-ice pass in his feet, collected it, and snapped it past Jacob Markstrom to open the game's scoring.
Dorsett responded towards the end of the period, the benefactor of a puck ricocheting off of Mike Smith, another body, and in.
Hamonic broke the stalemate about halfway through the game when the puck dribbled out to him after a scramble around the Canucks yet. He stepped into his shot and blasted it home for his first as a Flame.
Towards the end of the second, Smith made a brilliant glove save against Boeser. Not too long after that, the Flames scored off of Monahan's faceoff win in the Canucks' end, as Dougie Hamilton's shot beat Markstrom and gave the Flames their first multi-goal lead of the game.
The third period was when things really broke out.
First, it was Gaudreau scoring on the powerplay. With Henrik Sedin sitting in the box for slashing, Gaudreau and Jagr had a give-and-go advancing towards the Canucks net that ended up with Jagr passing to Gaudreau, and Gaudreau beating Markstrom on a centring attempt that went off of Michael Del Zotto.
"Real good for (Jagr) to get back-to-back games with minutes," Gulutzan said. "And then we have four days I think here, we'll have a day off tomorrow and then a couple of days of practice, so I think that helps you get recovered and then get back at it. So to have three games under his belt, I believe it is, managing the minutes a little bit, he looks better and better every time."
Nine seconds later, Boeser broke into the Flames' end and quickly snapped a shot past Smith to bring the game back to within two goals.
Forty-eight seconds after that, Dougie Hamilton beat Markstrom high far-side for his second of the night to restore the Flames' three-goal lead.
"I thought we were solid," Giordano said of the defence. "I think (the offence is) a big part of it. I think we've been joining, we've been making plays. Got a little bit more rewarded tonight, I think. It was nice to see Hammer get his first, he's been playing really solid for us, and Dougie and Brodes as well, just all of us. I think it's a big part of our offence, from the back end."
The Flames had some penalty trouble in the game, taking five penalties in the first period alone, and giving the Canucks seven powerplays through 60. However, they not only killed off all seven, but they outshot the Canucks 3-1 on their own powerplay. They scored on one of five powerplay opportunities of their own.
"We're a little out of sync right now in a lot of areas," Gulutzan said. "Just our lines, who's playing with who, our bench, for powerplay who's on the powerplay, who's not on the powerplay. We have to sit back here in the next few days and get a little bit of stability. I really like stability and right now, even for myself on the bench, we're a little chaotic."
ONE-TIMERS: Giordano's first career goal came on Oct. 14, 2006, exactly 11 years ago. The then-23-year-old scored twice in a 5-4 OT loss to the Leafs … Speaking of Giordano, he's the fourth Flames defenceman to score 100 goals for the franchise. Al MacInnis scored 213, Gary Suter 126, and Paul Reinhart 100. Next up is TJ Brodie, who has 33 … Hamonic's first goal for the Flames came in his sixth game. He scored 26 goals for the Islanders throughout his tenure in New York … All four of the Flames' top four defencemen registered at least a point in this game … Mike Smith's next win will be the 200th of his career … With his first career point as a Flame, Jagr has now scored for nine franchises.
NEXT UP: The Flames don't have any games for the next four days. They'll take back to the ice on Thursday, when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at the Scotiabank Saddledome (7 p.m., TV: SportsnetFlames, Radio: Sportsnet960 The FAN). Next Saturday they wrap up their two-game home stand with a contest against the Minnesota Wild (8 p.m., TV: CBC, Radio: Sportsnet960 The FAN).
