With all eyes on Iggy, Flames down Jackets
Calgary 1 Columbus 0
Jason Parkin
March 4th, 2008
If you were looking at the Flames schedule at the start of the season, you wouldn't have thought much of the early March mid-week clash against the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets. But not only are both teams battling for a playoff berth in the ridiculously tight Western Conference, you may just be missing out on a piece of Flames history as well...
Tonight is Jarome Iginla's first chance to score his 365th goal of his career, breaking Theoren Fleury's all time Flames mark. Many people already consider Iginla as the best Flame of all-time and have already retired the #12 in their minds, so to some this goal may be more of a formality than anything else. To others less convinced on Jarome's greatness, keep in mind this Edmonton native is only 31 years of age, in his 11th season, and has at least 5 more years left playing in Calgary to add to his totals. All this in a statistical age that sees fewer goals, and bigger goaltenders. The record goal might come tonight, it might not. Hopefully, whenever it happens, it happens on home ice so the 19,289 people in attendance can show Jarome the appreciation he rightly deserves.
On The Line
The Flames precariously sit in 6th spot in the conference, just 3 points clear of 9th place. They have 3 home games before heading out on the road for 4 straight, so it's pretty clear that these 3 games are huge if they want to be holding a playoff spot after their road trip concludes. Columbus is coming off a shootout loss in Edmonton, and before that an overtime win in Vancouver that saw them mount a 2 goal 3rd period comeback. They sit 4 points out of a playoff position, but have 3 teams to pass to get to the 8th spot. Every game for them right now is massive and they know it.
The Flow
Columbus came out looking like a team in a fight for their lives, which they are. They peppered the Flames with shots but the Flames were able to rely on a great period from Miikka Kiprusoff as he turned away all 18 pucks fired at him in the first frame to keep it scoreless going into the 2nd. The 2nd period was mucky and penalty filled. Both teams traded powerplays including a Blue Jackets 5-on-3 for over a minute, but the Flames were able to escape the period tied at 0-0. The tempo was upped a bit in the 3rd, as both teams started to skate faster and hit harder. The Flames finally broke the deadlock at 5:49 into the frame when Eric Nystrom found a hard charging Craig Conroy as he crossed the blueline, and #22 took the puck wide and backhanded it short-side past a stunned Pascal Leclaire. The Blue Jackets pressed for the tying goal with a late powerplay, but couldn't get the puck past Miikka Kiprusoff who played arguably his best game of the season earning his 2nd shutout in the last 5 games.
Three Stars
1 - Miikka Kiprusoff:
Simply awesome. 39 saves for the shutout, many of those saves were off breakaways and 2-on-1's. Has Cujo sparked him? 2 - Craig Conroy:
Scored the only goal of the game and was the only Flame using any speed at all. 3 - Rick Nash:
7 shots on goal and was a constant threat especially in the first period.
Big Save
Miikka Kiprusoff stopped the crafty Ukrainian Nikolai Zherdev on a 1st period breakaway with a blocker save to keep the game deadlocked at zero, and hold the fast starting Blue Jackets at bay.
Big Hit
Oh my Godard! #17 leveled Nik Zherdev late in the 3rd period with an open ice thump after a whole series of back-and-forth hits by both teams.
The Goat
Dion Phaneuf. Usually the goat doesn't go to the winning team, but the winning team was not the better team on this night. When you play hard all the time like Dion does, you are bound to take penalties. But 4 minors in one game is just too reckless for this team. The last one coming with under 2 minutes left in regulation, with the team clinging to their 1 goal lead. It could have been a disaster.
Mr. Clutch
Miikka Kiprusoff hands down. Stood his ground on countless (literally, I lost count) odd-man rushes.
Odds and Ends
Jarome Iginla will have to try to get number 365 next game. He definitely should have shot on that 3rd period 3-on-2, he had the short side open and likely would have scored had he taken the shot. The Flames were very lucky to escape with the win tonight as they were clearly the inferior squad. This was a huge win as Minnesota lost to Chicago and Calgary is now tied with the Wild for 1st place in the NW division with 79 points. Both teams have 15 games remaining. Calgary really seemed to lack cohesion tonight and appeared confused as to where their line mates would be. Why is the icing rule so discretionary? I don't think I'm ever going to get my head around it...Other teams hate Dion Phaneuf. They hate him a lot. He's always the shift disturber when he hits the ice. Despite his 4 penalties, Phaneuf still led the Flames with 24:15 in ice time. The Jackets outshot the Flames 39-19.
Next up
A huge Friday night game against the Nashville Predators who currently hold the 9th spot. 7:30 pm at the Pengrowth Saddledome, and the game can be seen on Sportsnet West or listened to on the Fan 960.
