Flames on verge of playoff elimination after failing to test Canadiens

And in the end, the Calgary Flames never had a shot.

Literally.

Down a goal, with the season on the line against the Montreal club they’re so desperately chasing, the Flames went the final 7 minutes and 48 seconds on Monday night without recording a single shot on goal.

Tough to win games like that, never mind make the playoffs.

Granted, plenty of credit goes to a Canadiens club that played a swarming, structured brand of playoff hockey that could serve them well if they decide to employ it moving forward.

However, the fact the Flames didn’t even test Jake Allen in the final seven minutes speaks to how Calgary sunk to a position where they’ll be mathematically eliminated from the playoff race within a week or two.

[snippet id=5038488]

It got so bad that with Jacob Markstrom pulled for the final 2:20, the Flames couldn’t even enter the Habs’ zone with the extra attacker.

“We didn’t generate anything,” said Mark Giordano of their late game “push” to keep their season relevant.

“It didn’t feel like we generated enough. Going back to our power play too they did a good job pressing us when they had to.”

That power play came with just over eight minutes left to play when the man who scored the Habs go-ahead goal in a 2-1 win, Tyler Toffoli, tripped Elias Lindholm.

The infraction came mere moments after Andrew Mangiapane deflected a Giordano point shot off the post.

The Flames generated one shot on the power play from Johnny Gaudreau, and that was all she wrote as the Flames dropped six points back of the fourth place Habs with eight games remaining.

Montreal has nine left, which is more bad math for the Flames.

Falling just short of the three-game sweep that could have changed the complexion of their playoff hopes dramatically, the Flames are now going to play out the string, although no one can say that out loud.

“We needed this win,” said Lindholm, who swapped power play goals with Shea Weber in the first period.

“We’ve put ourselves in a tough position here, but as long as there’s hope, we have to keep pushing and keep grinding. Obviously it sucks – would like to have this one back.”

Especially the third period.

“Our 6-on-5 this year hasn’t been great and we haven’t scored a lot of goals,” Lindholm said. “I think it was just in our hands.”

Asked if the hope that buoyed his club over the last few weeks is still there, Giordano wasn’t fully committed to answering affirmatively.

“We’d be lying if we said we won’t be watching what’s going on around us, but if we don’t win our games it’s really not going to matter anyways,” Giordano said. “We’ve got to pile up wins and see what happens around the league.”

And pray.

“It’s tough after a loss like today (to believe), but we’ve been playing some good hockey for a long time and when we can find a way to put pucks in the net, or get two or three of four, we usually come out on top,” added Giordano, whose blueline crew played well despite learning earlier in the day Noah Hanifin would undergo season-ending shoulder surgery.

“I thought we were playing a good game. When you come into a game like this, it’s a playoff atmosphere and it’s tight and little things make a difference.”

The fatal blow to the Flames playoff hopes came late in the second period, just after Markstrom stacked the pads to make a heroic save, only to see Toffoli pump a rebound behind the sprawling netminder.

The Habs shut the door from that point on and the Flames could do little to bust through it.

“There’s no question we all want it – we want it bad,” Markstrom said.

“It’s such a small margin from being really successful and I feel like we’ve been on the wrong side of that way too many times this season. But the belief is there – the guys are pissed off and we don’t like to lose.”

[relatedlinks]