The Vancouver Canucks had control of their first game with the Calgary Flames Wednesday night but David Jones scored 7:59 into the Kris Russell scored the game-winner with less than 30 seconds left in regulation to give the Flames a 2-1 win and 1-0 series lead.
“We just find another gear in the third,” Jones said. “I’m not sure what it is; we just kind of buckle down. I think because we’ve done it so much this year we kind of get the ball rolling and it’s just got better and better all season. We’re definitely not uncomfortable in that spot.”
Jonas Hiller made 29 saves for the win including some spectacular stops in the third period.
“They had a few pretty good chances early in the third, and if they score [the] game might be over,” Hiller said. “Those are the saves you want to make. They can shift the momentum and I think that’s what happened.”
Bo Horvat scored for Vancouver at 12:08 in the second period to give the Canucks the lead.
“Nothing rattles us. We stay composed and keep our focus, and in the third period we could feel it on the bench,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said. “The boys were even commenting: ‘Boys we’re coming, we’re coming.’ We felt we were gaining momentum, and as soon as Jones scored I felt we had another gear and we kept pressuring.”
Eddie Lack made 28 saves in the loss and was screened by Sam Bennett on the game-winner and it beat him cleanly.
“I don’t think they looked fresher,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “I thought we opened up when we didn’t need to and they got a couple outnumbered rushes because of that, and that’s where they looked like they were quicker. They are a team that does think they are going to do well in the third, and we have to capitalize on that.”
Calgary now has home ice advantage for the series.
“There was a huge momentum change when we scored that tying goal,” said Bennett, who was picked fourth in the 2014 NHL Draft but missed most of the season after shoulder surgery. “We drew so much energy. We pretty much dominated the latter half of that period.”
Now can that momentum be carried through to game two?
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