February 5: Flames 1 @ Northern Cyclones 2

It was another GSL game, but on an odd day, Tuesday, at an odd time, 5:20pm, but against a familiar foe, the Northern Cyclones. The Flames traveled to Hudson, NH to face off against the 1^st place, undefeated, Cyclones. In their last meeting, back in October, the Flames lost 1-0 to the Cyclones despite being outshot 23-11. This one was tight too, at least on the scoreboard, but resulted in a 2-1 loss for the Flames.

1^st Period: In the first period the Flames managed just a single shot on goal, allowed 7 shots on their net minder, but only trailed 1-0 on the scoreboard. It was apparent early that the Flames were not afraid to play physical hockey against the Cyclones. This style of play against a team this skilled and structured, results in a small margin of error, where too physical can get costly, while too passive will allow them too much room to operate. The opening period was relatively clean and crisp hockey with the offensive advantage going to the Cyclones.

2^nd Period: The Flames had their best offensive period in the second period. This is also the period where team hockey started to break down for the Flames too. First, let’s get to the positive part of the period. Sebastian Beal made an innocent pass to Zachary Bayer in the neutral zone, and Bayer took care of the rest. Bayer skated in, ripped off a wrist shot that found the back of the net, and the game was tied at 1-1 with more than 10 minutes to play in the period. The Flames continued to apply pressure, get shots, cause turnovers, and create scoring chances. Then penalties started adding up, and the Flames spent a lot of time in the box. For a while, the Cyclones retaliated and took some penalties too; evening things up. Then it was just the Flames moving past physical play, into; shall I say, not well thought out aggressive behavior? The Cyclones had two power play opportunities in the period, but did not score on either, despite getting several shots on net. At the end of the period, the game was still tied, but the Cyclones had erased a shot deficit in the period, and led 12-7 in shots after the power plays.

3^rd Period: The wheels could have come completely off in the final period for the Flames, but thanks to Keenan Alnahas, who was stellar in net, they still had a chance to be in this game. At 10:38 and at 10:17 of the period the Flames took minor penalties, giving the Cyclones more than a minute of 5-on-3 advantage time. They only needed 32 seconds to score the game-winning goal and take the lead at 2-1. Before the second minor was up they had rattled off five more shots on goal. Then a couple of minutes later the Flames took another penalty, and allowed another 5 shots on goal. The Flames killed 5 out of 6 shorthanded situations in the game. What doesn’t show up on the score board, and sometimes not even in the stat column, is the effect that these penalties take on the flow of the game; especially for the team that is behind, or the team taking the penalties, or both. Without the penalties and the power plays, the Cyclones may still have won the game, but 17 of their 33 shots were taken while they were on the power play. Furthermore, the Flames ability to mount a comeback, or take a lead, was greatly impacted, not only for the time spent in the box, but also for the time it takes to get any momentum or flow of the game back in place. In all, the Flames were outshot 14-3 in the 3^rd period, and by a 33-11 margin for the game. They spent more than 7 ½ minutes playing at least one player shorthanded. The Flames pulled their goaltender for the final 70 seconds but could not get a clean shot to the Cyclones goaltender.

On Tap: