OTTAWA — Calgary Flames coach Glen Gulutzan was much easier on his team Thursday night.
Johnny Gaudreau scored in overtime two days after Gulutzan called the Flames pathetic as Calgary responded with a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Gulutzan felt the team was in the right frame of mind from the start of Thursday’s game and he wasn’t worried even when the Senators mounted a late comeback.
"The one thing is when we get down we’re not great at coming back, but when we have the lead in the third we have a great record," said Gulutzan. "I wasn’t worried about that, just the feel on the bench was that the guys were dialled in."
The Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Senators tied it in the final minutes of regulation, but Gaudreau salvaged the effort scoring 4:29 into the extra period.
"We found a way to win," said Gaudreau. "It was a big one for us."
In comparison to Gulutzan’s confidence, Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher felt his team let an opportunity pass as they failed to have their best effort through the first 40 minutes.
"The reality is when you’re not there for two periods you don’t deserve to win and I think the result indicates the game."
The Senators had spoken of not underestimating the slumping Flames, but Boucher says the letdown doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
"I think we lacked a bit of respect (Thursday) in terms of the fear factor and we had to battle that," admitted Boucher. "Having said that I think the third period we played a really good period, our guys were bouncing back and it was a great character point."
Micheal Ferland and Sean Monahan also scored for the Flames (25-24-3), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Brian Elliott, a former goalie for the Senators, made 25 saves for the win.
With the Flames heading into the All-Star break the win comes at a most opportune time.
"Anytime you get some time off you want to be going in thinking about that last game as it sticks with you so I think that was a big win for our team here," said Monahan.
Chris Wideman and Tommy Wingels scored for the Senators (26-15-6) as Mike Condon stopped 23 shots in Ottawa’s net.
The game marked the return of former Ottawa head coach Dave Cameron, who was fired following last season. He is now an assistant coach for Calgary.
After a slow start the Senators scored twice in the third period to tie the game to finally give the 16,263 on hand at Canadian Tire Centre something to get excited about.
"We didn’t really play the way that we wanted, they did a much better job than we did creating chances and battling for loose pucks," said Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson. "Somehow we found a way in the third period to come back and did a great job at that, but at the end of the day a full 64 minutes wasn’t really good enough to win this game so that’s why we’re lucky we came away with a point."
Wideman tied the game 2-2 with 62 seconds remaining in regulation as he beat Elliott far side. Wingels, making his Senators debut after being acquired from San Jose on Tuesday, tipped Fredrik Claesson’s point shot to open scoring for Ottawa early in the third.
"It felt good to get one and the team battled hard to get a point so happy about that," said Wingels.
Calgary scored first for the first time in 10 games as Ferland opened the scoring at 9:39 of the second.
The Flames made it 2-0 with under three minutes remaining in the second period as Dougie Hamilton deked around Ryan Dzingel to get a shot off. Poor defensive coverage left the puck out front where Monahan was able to draw it back and put it between his legs to beat Condon.
"I didn’t really think about it, it just kind of happened," said Monahan. "It was a big goal there for the turning point in the game and we needed to maintain that lead. We didn’t, but we needed to find a way to win and we did that."
Both teams struggled to create anything in the opening period as Kyle Turris had the best chance for the Senators, while Sam Bennett had an opportunity to get the Flames on the board but Condon made the save.
Notes: Ottawa RW Chris Neil was a healthy scratch. D Mark Borowiecki missed his fifth straight due to the flu. Calgary D Jyrki Jokipakka and C Freddie Hamilton were a healthy scratch.
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