In the 2019 Heritage Classic, the Calgary Flames fell to the Winnipeg Jets in overtime in Regina, Saskatchewan.
An on and off snowy night in Mosiac Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan played no significant role in preventing a good old game of hockey. The Calgary Flames opened up the scoring in the second period and held it until the closing half of the second period when the Winnipeg Jets answered back with 4:11 to go in regulation. They would then take home the win with an overtime decision-maker with Bryan Little‘s name on it.
The Heritage Classic is a unique opportunity that only two current Flames had experienced before. Mikael Backlund and Mark Giordano participated in the Heritage Classic in 2011, when it was held in Calgary and were lucky enough to experience it again. It differs from a normal regular season game in the overall presentation of the event. More cinematic game functions, musical performances between each period and larger fan capacity.
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Regina did not hold back in pulling out all the stops to ensure a memorable experience for all who attended. Both teams had the opportunity to bring in their fans from respective cities.
While the crowd appeared pretty even, the Jets fans definitely had the edge on the vocal side of things. Flames fans could not drown out the cheers, comments, and boos of the Winnipeg fans when the opportunities presented themselves. In some ways, this reflected on the ice in the third period when Josh Morrissey scored their first goal of the night and sparked a momentum wave to carry them all the way to overtime.
What kept this game scoreless for so long was the outstanding effort of Flames goaltender David Rittich. He faced a total of 45 shots on the night and was able to stop 43. In comparison, the Flames only put up 30 with a bleak four shots registered in the third period. Rittich stood with poise the whole game and was rightfully awarded the second star of the night.
He also did work for his team beyond the scoresheet. When Oliver Kylington received a scary-looking hit along the boards from Adam Lowry to end the second period, Rittich immediately ran to his protection to prevent other players from injuring him further in the events of the scrum.
Lowry was only given two minutes for boarding, but even the third period did not show the Flames dealing any payback for that play. Kylington returned to the game in the third and did not appear significantly injured despite needing assistance off the ice.
An interesting thing that caught the eye of Flames fans going into this matchup was the significant shuffle of lines that happened in the practice the night before they were set to play.
Forwards
Johnny Gaudreau – Elias Lindholm – Matthew Tkachuk
Andrew Mangiapane – Sean Monahan – Sam Bennett
Milan Lucic – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Alan Quine – Derek Ryan – Tobias Rieder
Defense
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington – Rasmus Andersson
Goaltender
David Rittich
Most notable was Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan being split up on the top line. This slid in Elias Lindholm to center that line and promoted Matthew Tkachuk to that line. Which in turn, split up the 3M line as well.
While this line did produce the only goal of the night for the Flames, this was not exactly a product of the line switching. Tkachuk usually gets time with this group on the primary power play unit and it paid off in the scoring situation that put the Flames on the board when Elias Lindholm scored on the power play in the second period.
Also on that line, Gaudreau, who assisted on Lindholm’s tally, had three significant breakaway chances in the first period that he could not bury. The top corner glove shot side he was aiming for was also something he seemed to focus on the pre-game skate. However, his opportunities did align with his potential and these seemingly sure goals just turned into numbers on the shot clock.
The Flames did not come out very hot and did not finish hot either. They had decent spurts of talent throughout the second, then seemed to expect one goal to carry them the rest of the game. While Rittich deserved the shootout, the rest of the team didn’t play in a way that warranted a proud victory.
The positive side of it allows them to go home with a point. The third period was sloppy on both ends and Winnipeg picked up the intensity in the last five minutes when they were dealt a late power play opportunity as a result of a hooking call on Giordano.
They held it together for the rest of the third then had to fight off another penalty from Sean Monahan just 39 seconds into overtime. After that penalty expired, it appeared the game may make it to a shootout but the Jets finished it off before it got to that point.
Overall, neither team really dominated the game. There were pros and cons to both teams’ efforts on the Heritage Classic night. The Jets were just able to capitalize on one more opportunity than the Flames did.
Either way, as a player or a fan, the experience in a game like this is more memorable than the technical facts about it. It appeared to be a great time for everyone involved and at the end of the day, everyone went home with at least a point and something to remember it by.