'He's Been A Good Fit'

DENVER – Clearly, the name ‘Sharangovich’ doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity.

In Hockey’s Great Book of Original Nicknames, you typically want something short, snappy, and with the freedom to place a Y or an S at the end.

‘Shar, ‘Sharan,’ or just plain-old Yegor always felt so … boring.

“Sharky?” laughed Andrew Mangiapane of his red-hot linemate. “I don’t even know where that one came from. I think Savvy (Assistant Coach Marc Savard) came up with it one day and it just stuck with the boys.”

While the origins remain a bit cloudy, one thing is clear: the 25-year-old is attacking the game like a ravenous Great white these days.

Sharangovich had his best game as a Flame last night in Dallas, notching a beautiful goal off a pretty passing sequence between Mangiapane and top-line centre Elias Lindholm, before adding a pair of helpers to collect his first three-point game since April 12, 2022, when he was a member of the New Jersey Devils.

The timing, of course, couldn’t have been much better.

That it came in such a pivotal win for his group – and against one of the top teams in the NHL, we might add – says plenty about his ability to step up in the big moments.

But it also shows how he can bring others into the fight along with him.

“When you look at that line, that was Sharangovich's most competitive game in a long time,” said Head Coach Ryan Huska – adding that the aggression he speaks of helped take some of the “heavy lifting” off of Lindholm’s plate.

“I think for Sharan, when he is strong on pucks, he has a really good skill-set where he can make plays, whether that's in motion or standing still. He understands the offensive side of the game. The challenge is to get him consistently strong on pucks. If there's you and me going after a puck, you need him – more often than not – to say, 'That's mine. And I'm going to come out of that battle with it.'

“So, when he's on in that regard, you see nights like he had last night.”

Sharangovich now has goals in back-to-back games and three in his last four to give him five points, overall, in that span.

It’s the same number he put up in the first 16 games of the season when he was primarily deployed in a fourth-line role, but with the occasional bump thanks to his penalty-killing assignments. Still, he ranks 10th among forwards with an average of 13:41 per game, but did play a season-high 17:14 this past Wednesday in Nashville, before dipping back into the 14-minute range last night.

However you slice it, Sharangovich has earned a spot on the Flames’ top line and is now getting a steady dose on the powerplay as well, where his puck battles and board retrievals were on full display in Dallas.

He finished the night with a team-leading five shots on eight attempts, along with five individual scoring chances, including two from the house.

His play is not only impressing the coaching staff these days.

His linemates are reaping the benefits, too.

“He brings a lot of speed, he's got a great shot and has great hands. And he's going to be able to make the type of plays that we saw last night because of it,” Mangiapane said. “Those little support plays and things like that … He's so good at it. I feel that was missing earlier for us this season and we're starting to figure out how to play with each other and build on that chemistry.”

For Lindholm, there’s been a rotating cast of wingers playing on his line this year – and as arguably the Flames’ most important piece up front, it was crucial to find him a pair of worker-bees that not only help drive the play themselves, but complement his own, elite skill-set.

Sure, the sample is small right now, the early returns suggest the team has found a combination that works.

“He's been a good fit,” Lindholm said. “He's skilled, plays with a lot of pace and has a nice shot. If he plays with the way he did yesterday every night for us, we're going to have a lot of success.”

At a shade under 32 minutes of 5-on-5 play together, the trio has controlled 58.5% of the shot attempts (31-22), 66.7% of the scoring chances (14-11) and twice the number of high-danger looks (6-3) while starting only 12 of their 44 shifts in the offensive zone.

The one ‘knock’ is that they’ve been a tad unlucky, with an on-ice save percentage of only 75% in that same span.

But the numbers don’t lie.

And the puck is constantly going in the right direction when they’re on the ice.

The difference now is that their finishing is more complete than it has been at any other point in the season so far.

“We complement each other well,” Mangiapane said. “They're two, smart hockey players. Hopefully we can continue to keep building on our chemistry, keep the communication level high and growing as a line together, and hopefully that will (translate) into another good game tonight.”