Flames Spoil the Party in Victory over Islanders

Calgary Flames 5 – New York Islanders 2

Goals Summary

First Period:

Second Period:

Third Period:

Shots Summary

Recap

The Calgary Flames and New York Islanders met on Saturday night for their first of two meetings on the season, and first meeting overall since February 26 2019 which is over two full seasons ago. It was also a very special night for the Islanders as they opened up the brand new and gorgeous looking UBS Arena.

For New York, it was the culmination of a very long journey of fighting to find a new home that has finally concluded, perhaps it was appropriate that Calgary was their opponent in that sense. Unfortunately they had to deal with some Covid issues before the game as Anders Lee, Andy Greene, Ross Johnston, and Josh Bailey were late scratches.

Calgary opened the scoring early in the first period when Matt Martin had a horrendous giveaway right onto the tape of Brad Richardson. Richardson then beat Semyon Varlamov under the blocker to record the first ever goal at UBS Arena, forever etching his name in bar night trivia.

The theme of the first period was powerplays as the Islanders ended up with four PP’s in the first and the Flames had two. Both teams tallied once in the frame while with the man advantage.

First was Andrew Mangiapane continuing his hot streak by deflecting a Noah Hanifin point shot ever so slightly past Varlamov to put Calgary ahead 2-0. The goal was his 13th of the year and 12th road goal.

The Isles got one back late in the first when a turnover led to Brock Nelson quickly burying a goal from in close. The refs initially waved it off but the spotters blew the play down about thirty seconds later and the Isles had their first ever home goal in their new digs.

The theme of penalties would continue in the second period (but strangely stop for the third period despite the plays being just as chippy, not like there’s game management or anything going on right, but I digress) as both teams would have a pair of PP’s and Calgary would capitalize again.

It was the red hot Mangiapane scoring his second goal of the night by once again tipping a Hanifin point shot to direct it past Varlamov. This kid is just ridiculous right now as he has 14 goals through 18 games, good for 2nd in the entire NHL. Calgary carried that 3-1 lead to the third period.

Brock Nelson got his second of the night early in the third period to pull the score back to 3-2 and immediately cast fears of overtime into the heads of Flames fans everywhere. However Calgary managed to shut things down thanks to some very good goaltending once again from Jacob Markstrom and empty net goals from Trevor Lewis and Johnny Gaudreau would seal it.

The Flames spoiled the arena opening for the Isles tonight just like the Atlanta Flames did for the Islanders back at Nassau Coliseum way back in 1972. Love to see it. With the win, the Flames move to 10-3-5 on the year.

Final Thoughts

Flame of the Game

Jacob Markstrom (G): It feels like the easy way out to keep giving this to Markstrom, but he is just simply too good right now. He saved 34/36 and continues to provide the club with elite goaltending.

Calgary is next in action tomorrow at 5:00 PM MT when they take on the Bruins.

by Michael MacGillivray