A shorthanded Flames bench took a 2nd period lead then stayed just in front the rest of the night to secure a 4-2 home win over the visiting Glasgow Clan.
After a scoreless opening set, the teams combined for 3 goals in the first 7+ minutes of the 2nd starting with a 2 goal lead from Flames through Josh Waller 60 seconds after re-start then Ethan Strang a couple of minutes later. At 27:17, Clan cut their deficit in half thanks to a Mitchell Heard strike and the 2-1 score held over into the final frame.
In the 46th minute, Strang’s 2nd of the contest extended the difference to a pair. A late Flames powerplay and a chance to ice the game went sideways when Clan’s Tyson McLellan scored shorthanded with less than 2 minutes remaining, making it a 1 goal game. It looked like it might get a bit worse when Flames took their own penalty off the ensuing faceoff, leaving seconds of 4 on 4 before Clan went to the powerplay to close out regulation. However, with their net empty and a 6 on 4 manpower advantage, Flames bagged an empty netter from Lewis Hook to relieve the pressure and secure the result.
Jake Kupsky made 36 saves on 38 shots against Landon Bow who was 24 of 28.
“That is a gutsy effort by every single guy tonight,” explained Paul Dixon.
“We have accumulated a lot of injuries, our worst run in recent memory for sure, and the guys who were available stepped up in a big way especially at the back with every Defenceman basically playing half the game each.”
“That is part of the game, and every team goes through it at different times, but you cannot give enough credit to everyone pulling together from the net out to grab a big result tonight.”
“We know some guys can’t be back for weeks, but hopefully we get a body or two back to be a bit better for our next start, and we will also have to assess if there is anything we can do to shore up the roster in the short term over the next few weeks.”
