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Circle's 2 cents (or 5) for the game:

Brodie with a Jekyll and Hyde performance
- Brodie in his first few shifts looked uncomfortable and not ready to go. It started with the missed assignment on MacKinnon and was highlighted by his bobbling of the puck which led to the 2-0 goal early in the first. After this though, Brodie was in my opinion the Flames best D. He was active in the offensive zone making smart pinches and good plays to cycle the puck. He was skating well through the neutral zone. And he made an excellent defensive play in the overtime which led to Monahan being able to grab the puck and spring Gaudreau in for the breakaway winner. It was quite a weird game for Brodie considering the highs and the lows but it was nice to see him bounce back after a couple of bad plays.

The timeout
- I can't remember a time where a coach called a timeout so early in the game, but I really liked the call. Peters recognized that the Flames were not ready to start the game and he took the whole timeout to motivate and get the guys focused. This got the team settled into the game and from that point on, the Flames looked like a different team. Perhaps Colorado took the gas off the pedal but the Flames dominated in the second and third periods and ultimately came back to win the game. It seems refreshing to have a coach that isn't afraid to use the timeout in key situations now that the coach's challenge has been implemented (i.e. afraid to use the timeout in the event of a potential interference or offside call).

Bennett's 2nd period hit changes the game
- This will be my 3rd consecutive game where I have written about how Bennett is playing great this season and Bennett took it another step this game. Although the timeout was critical in getting the Flames to settle down, I believe the momentum changed entirely when Bennett crunched JT Compher in the corner. A few shifts later, Bennett tapped in a rebound to close the gap by one. 2 minutes left in the third, Bennett creates chaos in front of Varlamov and Lindholm is able to snipe in the game-tying goal. Really great effort by Bennett tonight and I love that Bennett stood up for himself and went after Zadorov after being butt-checked by him without the puck (with no call somehow). Overall a great night for Bennett.

Solid backup performance by Rittich
- In my opinion, Rittich in the backup role is completely fine going forward. When he took over starting duties last year during Smith's injury, he didn't play as well. But during his time as the #2 in net, Rittich has been nothing but solid and this applied to tonight as well. I can't blame him for either goal he let in tonight but he certainly kept the Flames in the game until the momentum started to shift.

Critical PK in the 3rd
- Although I praised Bennett for standing up for himself, it did put the Flames down a man in the third period. Had Colorado scored on this PP, the game might have been too far out of reach for the Flames to come back. But this PK was probably the best of the season. Colorado had so much difficulty entering the zone and once they did enter the zone, it seemed like the puck was already going the other way. The one dangerous chance that Colorado had, Brodie was there to block Rantanen's shot, and thus, we kept the Avalanche to 0 shots in the PK. The differences in the PK from this season to last are quite noticeable to my eye. They are playing what seems like a triangle down low and then the high forward is constantly skating and trying to be aggressive. As well, we are doing a great job to deny zone entries by being more aggressive and stepping up at the blue line. Currently, we are 20% on the PP and 80% on the PK, which I'll take all day compared to last year. I believe the mark to be at is a combined percentage of 100% and we are right there. Hopefully we continue to play well against a really strong Bruins team on Wednesday.