Flames Plus/Minus: Early Goal Blues, Duehr’s First, Vladar a Rock

The Calgary Flames finally got their win. 

In their third outing of a five-game road trip, the Flames earned a big 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Walker Duehr, Blake Coleman and Dillon Dube (2) all scored as the Flames outshot the Blues 40-26. 

It was a 1-1 game early in the third, but unlike Tuesday when the Flames collapsed and let the Blues come back from a 3-1 deficit in the final frame, the visitors took advantage of their opportunities to run their record on the trip to 2-0-2. 

As with every game, there were positives and negatives. Here’s a look in the Flames Plus/Minus: 

+ Walker Duehr’s first NHL goal for the Calgary Flames

Walker Duehr snapped the scoring drought late in the second period and the only people more excited than his teammates were his family members in the stands. The rookie playing his second straight game and just the third of his NHL career got a big one on an odd-man rush with Nazem Kadri. 

Duehr took the feed and got a perfectly placed shot off quickly, beating Blues goalie Thomas Greiss over the pad and under the blocker. 

The best part was his parents have been in St. Louis for both these games after making a long drive from South Dakota to see their son play in the NHL for the first time. 

He got into a game early last season in Ottawa but because of all the restrictions for COVID-19, Duehr’s family didn’t make the trip to Canada. 

+ Dan Vladar continues to look like the best Flames goalie

The story of Dan Vladar continues to grow. 

He may be the backup but he’s putting together a great resume to start in the NHL. The Calgary Flames goaltender made 25 saves, including a couple of breakaway chances for the Blues, to run his recent record to 6-0-2. 

That’s not to say he’d be able to put up the same numbers if he was tasked with starting more frequently — but he’s easily the best backup in the league at this point and should finally get more of a timeshare because of his consistent play. 

He looks like a calm, cool and collected veteran out there.

– Early period lapse leads to another goal against

As good as things were for the Flames for most of the night, they were staring at yet another game where they looked like they would outshoot the opposition but come away without enough offence to win. 

Worse, they gave up another one of those early period goals to start the most important 20 minutes of the game off on the wrong skate. 

Duehr managed to give the team a lead with a few minutes left to play in the second period, but just 20 seconds into the third period, Airdrie kid Jake Neighbours jumped on a loose puck from the corner almost along the goal-line and found the open net behind Vladar to tie the game and put the outcome in doubt. 

It was shades of Tuesday night, when the Blues scored twice in 28 seconds just a couple of minutes into the third to change the entire game. 

Too often this season, the Flames have allowed an early period goal, or two or three in short order, or a goal that closely follows one of their own. It’s something they really need to work on.

+ Third-period push puts Flames over top

Just two nights earlier, the Calgary Flames let a 3-1 third-period lead turn into a 4-3 overtime loss. And although it looked a little dicey when they let the St. Louis Blues score 20 seconds into the third period to tie things at 1-1, the Flames hit the afterburners and scored three more to ensure they moved on from their two-game set with their first regulation win of the road trip so far (2-0-2). 

Blake Coleman’s unassisted backhander sandwiched a pair from Dillon Dube as the Flames took full advantage of their opportunities over the final 20 minutes. Dube’s second into the empty net punctuated the difference from Tuesday’s outcome. 

Finally, no overtime.