HOLIDAY CHEER!

The sleigh is packed up, all ready for flight; for the athletes in red, having shown their great might.
OK, OK… Enough with the cheesy, holiday-themed 'poetry.'
But like Santa Claus himself, the Flames, too, are taking to the skies and heading ho-ho-home on a cheer-filled chariot.
With a 3-2 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks Friday, the Flames enter the break with seven of a possible eight points from the road stowed carefully on board.

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Their goal was to be in a playoff spot by Christmas.
Mission accomplished.
The victory moves the Flames to 16-12-7 for 39 points, one up on the Oilers for the second wild-card spot.
Rasmus Andersson scored the OT winner with a beautiful, bar-down blast after the Ducks rallied from a third-period deficit to force the extra period.
Michael Stone and Brett Ritchie scored for the Flames in regulation, while Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves.
The Flames out-shot the Ducks 45-23, despite playing their fourth game in six nights, and 13th, overall, so far in December.
"You know what, this has been a grind for our team," said Head Coach Darryl Sutter. "They need a break and tonight was just about digging down there a little bit, that's pretty clear. A lot of games.
"Doesn't get easier."
Indeed, but now they can enjoy three full days away from the rink and re-charge for another hectic slate, which begins with back-to-back games (vs. EDM, @ SEA) immediately after Boxing Day.
"Obviously, huge," Andersson - the OT hero - said of being back in a playoff spot. "We talked about it. 'Have a good road trip,' which we did. To come out with three out of four and seven of eight points, it's a good trip. Now we build and we keep going. We come home and we have a tough matchup right away after the break, but as I said, let's take advantage of a couple days off and enjoy some time with friends and family."
Andersson had a whale of a night, finishing with the goal, four shots and four blocks in 27:35 of ice time. He's now on a three-point game streak and has 23 (4G, 19A), overall, in 34 games this year.
The Flames were in command from the drop, and after recording the first five shots of the game and looking very much like a team on a mission, they drew first blood when Stone leaned into that patented clap-bomb to score his fourth of the season.
Trevor Lewis won the offensive-zone faceoff to the left of Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal, before Nikita Zadorov took the puck deep down the wall and made a heads-up pass back to Adam Ruzicka, who was covering at the far point. Ruzicka up the puck on a platter for Stone, and after quickly dusting it off, he wired a 95+ mph blast over the glove.
While he didn't pick up an assist, kudos to Ritchie, who set a beautiful screen in front, taking the eyes away from the Anaheim netminder.

It was the league-leading 19th time this year the Flames have scored a goal in the opening five minutes of any period. Thirteen of those have come in the opening frame.
Markstrom wasn't overly busy in the front half of the period, but was forced to come up with a big stop off Anaheim sniper Troy Terry, who was left all alone at the far circle and whistled a one-timer clean into the outstretched right pad.
Terry, who entered the night with 12 goals and 28 points in 34 games, was involved again late in the stanza when he struck iron with a hard shot off the rush.
Credit the homeside, who looked incredibly sleepy in the early stages, but found their legs and went on a 10-3 run on the shot clock, which included the game-tying tally.
With Adam Ruzicka and Blake Coleman off serving separate minor penalties - giving the Ducks a 32-second 5-on-3 powerplay - former Team Canada World Junior star Mason McTavish ripped home a cross-seam one-timer to make it a 1-1 game at 16:44.
Tempers flared late in the period when Noah Hanifin (who was an absolute stud on this road trip) dropped the mitts and tangled with Max Comtois in the neutral zone.
It was Hanifin's first-ever fight as a Flame and only the third of his NHL career.
The Flames were held to only one shot in the final 11:38 of the period.
Calgary got its first powerplay early in the second period and nearly hit paydirt, but after hitting three posts in Thursday's OT loss to the Kings, another two grazed iron on the same PP to keep it a 1-1 game.
Fortunately for the visitors, the poor puck-luck didn't last long.
An Anaheim clearing attempt hit the referee, allowing Lewis to scoop up the loose puck and feed Ritchie, who cruised down the slot and popped home a quick little backhand to put the Flames back in front at 2:56.

The Flames, again, had a strong start to the period and had the first nine shots of the frame, 10 minutes in. Clearly, the Ducks had very little going at this point, but nearly cashed in when superstar Trevor Zegras clanked one off the iron after leaning into a wrister off the rush.
But then the visitors cranked up the heat even further.
Elias Lindholm fired one off the bar on a powerplay only moments later - and if you're keeping track at home, that was the third bar of the game for the Flames, while the Ducks hit metal twice themselves.
The Flames were all over the Ducks, out-shooting them 23-1 and recording all 10 of the period's high-danger chances at 5-on-5, but it remained a one-goal game after 40 minutes.
The Ducks tied it up on the powerplay at 3:28 of the third, with Jakob Silfverberg going top shelf off the rush.
The Flames, though, got right back to work in search of the go-ahead goal, and hit - you guessed it - another post when Andersson's point-blank offering bounced off the base of the iron.
Make it bars and seven, total, in the past two games.
We often talk about teams trading chances in close games. In this one, they were trading posts. On another powerplay midway through the period, Terry zipped one off the crossbar after threading his way into the middle and unleashing a wicked wrister from the tops of the circles.
Shots were even at 12 apiece in the third, but Andersson picked the top corner on only shot - from either team - at 2:24 of OT.

THEY SAID IT:

Andersson on being the OT hero:
"Obviously, I don't mind it (the big moments). I feel like I've been like that sine I was a little kid. It changes quick, right? Yesterday I made a horrendous play on the overtime goal in LA. I let them play tic-tac-toe around me and they scored. It goals both ways, right? Today I scored but yesterday was probably my fault that they scored, so it goes both ways, for sure."

Ritchie on out-shooting the Ducks so heavily, but only having the two goals in regulation:
"That happens sometimes. Hockey's a weird game and we've had some that went the other way where we score on one or two or three shots, and the next thing you know, you're in the game. You've just got to stick with it and if it takes 65 minutes, it takes 65 minutes."
Sutter on the growth of Andersson:
"Ras plays big minutes every night. Plays against best players. He's adjusting to that part of the game, which is something he still has... Those defencemen other than Tanny are kids. You look at it, they're four or five years from being top players. Just figuring it all out. There's four of them that do that."

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: CGY 45 - ANA 23
Powerplay: CGY 0-for-4 - ANA 2-for-5
Hits: CGY 13 - ANA 11
Faceoffs: CGY 57% - ANA 43%
\Scoring chances: CGY 22 - ANA 17
\High-danger scoring chances: CGY 12 - ANA 7
*Courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (5-on-5)

THE LINEUP:

FORWARDS
Dillon Dube - Elias Lindholm - Tyler Toffoli
Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Milan Lucic
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman
Adam Ruzicka - Trevor Lewis - Brett Ritchie

DEFENCE
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar - Chris Tanev
Nikita Zadorov - Michael Stone
GOALTENDERS
Jacob Markstrom - Starter
Dan Vladar

UP NEXT:

The Flames are back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 27 when they host the Edmonton Oilers in the season's final installment of the Battle of Alberta.
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