Huska frustrated with refs after Flames loss, but not for the reason you’d think

Posted on by newsbot

The Calgary Flames fell 4-3 in what ended up being a controversial overtime loss versus the St. Louis Blues last night.

The Flames put forth a solid effort in this one, erasing an early two-goal deficit thanks to goals from Jakob Pelletier and Matt Coronato.

“It’s been a tough year and a half. It felt good, just to score a big goal too, it was 2-0 [before],” said Pelletier, who was just recalled from the Calgary Wranglers on Sunday. “To [score] a big goal again, it felt pretty good, to be honest.”

The Blues would take the lead again early in the third, though in typical Flames fashion, they were able to battle back once again. This time it was MacKenzie Weegar, who was able to beat Jordan Binnington on a shot from the slot.

This one then headed to overtime, where the controversy ensued.

Roughly half way through the five-minute frame, Robert Thomas danced around Yegor Sharangovich, only to be denied by the pad of a sprawled out Dan Vladar. The Flames netminder wasn’t able to cover the puck, however, and it wound up being jammed home by Colton Parayko.

This goal ended up being reviewed for several minutes, as the officials tried to determine whether or not Parayko pushed Vladar’s pad into the net. Much to the disappointment of many at the Saddledome, they eventually deemed it a good goal.

“It’s frustrating, to be quite honest with you,” head coach Ryan Huska said afterward. “If you’re going to call it that way, it’s fine, but the referees can come over and explain it, [instead] they just skate themselves right off the ice. That’s the part that bothers me a little bit.”

The usually cool and collected Huska was visibly agitated after this one, for more than just one reason. He also voiced frustration with his penalty kill, which, on the stat sheet killed off 3-of-4 Blues power plays, though in reality it was 2-of-4 given that Pavel Buchnevich’s early third period tally came just seconds after a Flames penalty had come off the board.

“A penalty kill is short a guy, so you have to out work a power play,” Huska said. “If you’re willing to do that, you’re going to kill penalties off. It’s not rocket science killing penalties. Our penalty kill does not match our five on five play, and that to me is where the issue comes in.”

Despite the loss, the Flames were able to pick up a single point, which helped them jump back into third place in the Pacific Division.

Source

Related Posts