"I feel like we didn't have the puck all night long,'' echoed Tkachuk. "When we got pucks into their end it was easy for them to get out and it was hard for us to get out of our zone.
"It just had to do with us getting outworked. Every single player on our team."
In search of some ember of a spark, Gulutzan mixed-'n-matched lines, to no avail.
"That's what happens,'' said the coach, "when you've got bingo balls and nobody's going.
"You can't bench everybody. You're trying to find some spark.
"We knew they clutter up the neutral zone, it's hard to get through them. They did a good job of being above us all night.
"What we wanted, a trench game, we lost. There's no system for out-worked.
"We've put together a good string of games but the ones that irk you the most are the ones you get out-battled. And that's tonight.
"I thought right from our top guys down we were out-battled. In almost every area. Outside of maybe Jankowski's line. I didn't think anyone else was near where they needed to be."
The Flames were being territorially dominated and outshot 11-2 in the third when their brief, intense rally began, Michael Frolik's angled shot caroming off the post and dropping down for Ferland to finish off from close range.
Things got interesting in the closing two minutes, Tkachuk snapping home a lovely Michael Backlund powerplay set-up and goalie Mike Smith off to make it a 6-on-4.
That, however, was a close as they could claw.
A Jordie Benn point shot nicked Bryon Froese on his back en route to screened Smith to open Montreal's account in the first, then left-winger Nicolas Deslauriers displayed a spot of superb hand-eye co-ordination, batting an airborne rebound of a Froese shot, backhanded, into the net 8:44 into period two.
When the pesky Brendan Gallagher cashed a cross-ice Artturi Lehkonen pass into the short-side 3:10 into the third, any hope seemed done and dusted.
But the Ferland goal, and a Paul Byron high-sticking minor that led to Tkachuk's eighth of the season, threatened to turn the game on its head.
