The Calgary Flames didn’t mince words on how they felt about the officiating in last night’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators.
The officiating was controversial throughout, with the most talked about incident coming in overtime.
Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau was able to take a pass from Nazem Kadri to get in alone on Linus Ullmark. He was denied, but immediately dropped to the ice afterward after taking a high-stick from Brady Tkachuk. The puck went down the other way, and Tkachuk wound up beating Dan Vladar for the overtime winner.
Brady Tkachuk ends the game in overtime.
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— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) December 20, 2024
“I saw a chance for two calls to be made and they weren’t,” head coach Ryan Huska said about the game-winning goal. “The guy that probably should’ve been sitting in the box for four minutes ends up scoring.”
Looks like Brady Tkachuk’s stick clips Jonathan Huberdeau in the face right after his scoring chance.
That’s the non call the Flames were upset about in OT.
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— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) December 20, 2024
Huberdeau was irate in the moment, yelling at the referee. He was asked post-game if the referees gave him an explanation.
“No, they don’t talk. They didn’t say anything,” Huberdeau said. “They’re just telling you to go to the bench. I mean, they’ll look at it and they’ll [see] the mistake. They can make a mistake, but it sucks that it’s the outcome of the game.”
That was far from the only controversy in this one. As the horn sounded to end the second period, Martin Pospisil went falling to the ice and appeared to be shaken up after taking a shot from Senators forward Shane Pinto.
Martin Pospisil gets sucker punched at the end of the 2nd period.
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— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) December 20, 2024
“I just feel like over the last little bit, for whatever reason, we don’t get a lot of calls coming our way,” Huska said. “I don’t know if I have to change my approach behind the bench. I’m not sure. [Maybe] be different in how I handle them, I don’t know.”
The irony in it all was that in the second period, Mikael Backlund was given a four-minute minor for a high stick on Tkachuk, who left the game for a brief moment for repairs. It was the correct call, but one that was upsetting for the Flames given the numerous calls missed the other way.
“They’ve got a tough job. I’ll say that to start it off. But it was a pretty blatant sucker punch at the end of the second period,” Blake Coleman said. “Four guys on the ice miss is it. Then you get a breakaway, your eyes are all on the puck carrier in overtime, he takes a stick to the mouth, draws blood. Same play that we got a four-minute [penalty] for earlier in the game. The rules are the rules. I don’t know if they missed it or what, but the guy that high sticks us goes down and scores the game winner.”
As frustrating as the final score was, the Flames were able to pick up at least one point for the third straight game. Calgary’s record now sits at 15-11-7, which has them sitting in a wild-card position with just one more game to play before their six-day Christmas break.