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The Calgary Flames want one other Yegor Sharangovich.
Or perhaps two.
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Not simply because Sharangovich was an offensive standout once more Thursday in Minnesota, the place he prolonged his goal-scoring spree to 4 straight video games, added an help and grazed the submit on one other golden alternative.
As a result of ‘Sharky,’ as teammates have been calling him, stays the one Flames participant to attain in a shootout this season.
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Yeah, actually.
Sharangovich is 3-for-4. His buddies are a mixed 0-for-12.
Oof.
The Flames wound up on the fallacious aspect of the talents competitors Thursday at Xcel Power Centre, wrapping a winless road-trip with a 3-2 shootout setback to the host Minnesota Wild. They misplaced each which method on this three-game getaway — in regulation in Colorado, in additional time in Vegas and on breakaways in St. Paul.
“I believed we had been the higher crew and we deserved these two factors,” groaned Flames netminder Dan Vladar after a 30-save exhibiting. “The shootout, it’s like a lottery proper?”
In that case, the Flames gained’t be a consider Friday’s Lotto Max draw. They shouldn’t trouble shopping for tickets.
At 0-4, they’ve been the NHL’s worst shootout squad thus far this season. Even after Vladar’s holy-smokes scorpion save on Frederick Gaudreau, they couldn’t buck that development Thursday.
Sharangovich hit lead-off and scored on a glove-side sizzler, however then Elias Lindholm fired excessive of the web and each Jonathan Huberdeau — with a chance to erase the sting of an terrible giveaway that gifted the Wild their opening objective — and Nazem Kadri had been stopped by Filip Gustavsson.
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Matt Boldy’s top-shelf snipe within the fourth spherical was in the end the distinction.
“That’s a tricky one, to lose in a shootout,” mentioned Flames captain Mikael Backlund throughout a post-game interview on Sportsnet 960 The Fan. “We actually wanted this recreation to shut out the journey.”
In that case, they actually one other breakaway ace.
As a result of right here’s the factor concerning the shootout — one objective sometimes isn’t going to get it finished.
Whereas Sharangovich has been dynamite when it will get all the way down to dangles, Huberdeau has been skunked on 4 makes an attempt this season, Kadri has failed on three and rookie Connor Zary has been twice turned away. Lindholm, Rasmus Andersson and Dillon Dube are every 0-for-1.
That’s why Sharangovich, regardless of sharpening off a candy feed from Lindholm for his fifth objective in a four-game span, was left making an attempt to shoulder a number of the blame for Thursday’s bummer, referring to a few near-misses as he advised reporters at Xcel Power Middle: “I ought to rating on these possibilities.” The red-hot winger is now tops on the crew with 10 tallies this season, so level your finger elsewhere.
That’s why Vladar, regardless of a terrific save of Ryan Hartman close to the tip of regulation and that jaw-dropper on Gaudreau in the course of the one-on-one showdowns, wasn’t rewarded with a victory. With only one win to point out for his previous 5 begins, he vowed to Flames TV: “I simply have to stick with it, simply hold doing the identical issues, and hopefully the outcomes are going to come back for me.”
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That’s why, regardless of successful the special-teams battle with a man-advantage marker by Sharangovich and a shortie from Blake Coleman, the Flames left Minnesota with half the factors they had been hoping for.
They’ve dropped 4 in a row, with an 0-2-2 report over that span, as they head house for Saturday’s tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning on the Saddledome (8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
“This was a great recreation, most likely for each side, I’d say,” mentioned Flames coach Ryan Huska in his post-game presser in Minnesota. “I believed we had a sluggish first 10 minutes, however then I actually preferred our recreation from that time ahead. I felt like we deserved the additional level tonight.”
“One other recreation that might have gone both method,” Coleman echoed. “We knew it was going to be a kind of 2-1 or 1-0, low-scoring, tight-checking highway video games. And that’s what it was.
“Win that shootout and we’re all feeling a little bit totally different proper now.”
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