LUCIC HONOURED FOR 1,000

The Flames paid tribute Monday night to Milan Lucic for his recent major milestone prior to taking on the visiting Ottawa Senators.
Lacing up your skates for 1,000 games is one of the most impressive feats you can achieve in the NHL, Lucic becoming just the 355th player to hit the mark, doing it back on April 13 when Calgary played the Leafs in Toronto.
This was the team's first appearance back at the Scotiabank Saddledome since that game and the organization made sure to fete him properly.

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Unfortunately, unlike the actual 1,000th game in Toronto where Calgary skated to a 2-1 overtime victory, the Flames couldn't find the win this time out.
Elias Lindholm tallied for the Flames, the club's scoring leader extending his point streak to four goals and 11 points in his last six outings, and Michael Stone added a third-period marker, but the Flames fell 4-2.
Jacob Markstrom got the start for Calgary, making 17 saves while Matt Murray turned aside 26 shots.
It was a tough night on special teams, Calgary going 0-4 on the powerplay and allowing a short-handed marker.
Lucic's wife Brittany and children Valentina, Nikolina, and Milan Jr. were on hand for the pre-game ceremony, where Flames GM Brad Treliving presented him with an specially commissioned painting that documented his career.
Treliving also presented him with the coveted Silver Stick, while his kids got miniature silver sticks as their own momentos of the important night.

CLICK TO SEE TIME LAPSE OF PAINTING

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Earlier in the day, Lucic's teammates presented him a Rolex watch and a bottle of wine with his career stats engraved on it.
The two teams traded shots once the puck dropped, with the visitors getting on the board first.
Following a turnover in the Calgary zone on a Flames clearing attempt, Brady Tkachuk intercepted the puck and skated in before snapping the puck far side for his 15th of the season at 9:50.
Lindholm knotted the game with a great second effort under two minutes later, following up his own shot that had squeaked through Murray's legs and poking it home. Mark Giordano started the play that led to the goal with a breakout pass to Johnny Gaudreau, who drew four Ottawa players to him before passing to Lindholm who had snuck in behind.

With 50 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Brett Ritchie and Josh Brown dropped the mitts in the Senators' zone for a spirited scrap.
The second period was a bit of a track meet, with the puck moving fast and plenty of chances - especially for the homeside - but not a lot of pucks finding the net.
One opportunity came in the middle stanza when Lucic skated the puck into the Ottawa zone and slid a nice backhand pass to Josh Leivo, but his shot through traffic just missed the short side.
Calgary got its first powerplay of the game - and first of two in the period - when Lindholm was tripped up on a rush at 11:04. On the ensuing powerplay, Gaudreau feathered a pass cross-crease to Matthew Tkachuk but he couldn't beat Murray with the tip.
Markstrom made arguably his biggest save on Artem Zub, who got the puck up at the blueline and walked right down the alley, wristing a shot that the Calgary 'tender tracked through a screen to stop.
Ottawa made it 2-1 when Connor Brown scored short-handed with 56 seconds left in the period, first passing to Nick Paul, whose offering was stopped by Markstrom, but Brown shovelling the rebound under Markstrom as he lunged back across the crease.
The Flames had an 8-3 advantage in high-danger chances after 40 minutes according to naturalstattrick.com.
Calgary got a pair of powerplay chances in the third period but weren't able to find the equalizer.
Josh Norris scored on the man-advantage for Ottawa in the final frame but Stone answered back with a howitzer from the point that appeared to bounce off Lucic on the way to finding twine, however the goal was credited to Stone.

Brown got his second of the game into an empty net to seal it.

THEY SAID IT:

Lucic on what went wrong:
"I think it is definitely execution and it's probably 90% of the guys. We're not finishing on enough of our chances that we're creating. It cost us the game in Montreal and we had some chances tonight that we didn't convert on. It comes down to executing when we're in a position to finish and score some goals."

On the pre-game ceremony:
"It was nice. Family was very excited to be back at the rink. I know the kids ask me all the time if they can come to a game or come to a practice, so they were thrilled to be here tonight. It was cool to share that moment with them, and I guess that was the only positive out of tonight."

Head coach Darryl Sutter on the powerplay:
"Too slow. Too slow. The powerplay was too slow. They passed the puck too slow. And the same guys that turned the puck over all night were too slow on the powerplay. ... We had guys that didn't have a shot on goal and probably five or six turnovers. Generally, that's the hockey game and it certainly was tonight."

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: Cgy 28 I Ott 20
\Scoring Chances: Cgy 20 I Ott 15
\High-Danger Scoring Chances: Cgy 8 I Ott 3
Calgary Powerplay:0-4
Calgary Penalty-Kill: 1-2
Hits:Cgy 23 I Ott 15
Blocks:Cgy 12 I Ott 14
\According to naturalstattrick.com*

THE LINEUP:

\ To start the game*
Lines
Johnny Gaudreau - Elias Lindholm - Matthew Tkachuk
Andrew Mangiapane - Sean Monahan - Brett Ritchie
Milan Lucic - Mikael Backlund - Joakim Nordstrom
Josh Leivo - Derek Ryan - Dillon Dube
Pairings
Mark Giordano - Chris Tanev
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
Juuso Valimaki - Michael Stone
Goaltender
Jacob Markstrom

UP NEXT:

The Flames have tomorrow off ahead of practices Wednesday and Thursday before three games in four nights against the Habs (April 23, 24 & 26).