It’s constantly mentioned whenever you’re the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and is generally considered a cliché, but when it comes to the Detroit Red Wings: there is no other team that is as consistently used as a measuring stick for opposing teams. After the epic nature of the Flames last game against the Red Wings on the recent seven game road trip: tonight’s contest was going to be interesting.
You had to know that the Red Wings would be looking to exact a measure of revenge tonight, and they came dangerously close to doing so, but the Flames would shut things down in the final moments of the game.
On The Line
Two big points for the Calgary Flames! With the Vancouver Canucks snapping at their heels, the Flames got lucky with a Canucks loss on Saturday after the Flames were singing the Blues on Friday night, so two points pushes the cushion (that’s dirty) to 5 with the Canucks on the road.
The Flow
The first half of the first period was reminiscent of the game earlier this year in Manhattan; it just seemed to fly by. Calgary weathered a flurry from the Red Wings on an early power play, but were looking a lot like they did in the third period back in Detroit, and midway through the first Dion Phaneuf scored his eleventh of the season on a lazy wrist shot that Chris Osgood lazily waived a glove at. The rest of the period was pretty much all Calgary, as they slowly started to take over the game.
The second period featured more of a donkey than a goaltender in net for the Red Wings as Chris Osgood let in two appallingly bad goals. The first coming from pretty much right on the goal line that snuck between Osgood’s skate and the post, and then pretty much the same thing happened to Mike Cammalleri who snuck the puck in behind Osgood, but this time from behind the goal line. With the Osgood hubaloo done for the night it was up to Ty Conklin to right the ship for the Red Wings. Pavel Datsyuk would get the Red Wings on the board before the end of the second period taking a Jim Vandermeer attempted clear and fired it far side as Kiprusoff was in the midst of complaining about being touched by Marian Hossa, but the goal counted.
In the third, the Wings were starting to come on, and as visions of the Red Wings collapse against the Flames just a few games prior started to dance in the heads of Flames fans, Curtis Glencross was the benefactor of some hard work from Craig Conroy who fed the puck to the slot where Glencross rifled the puck through the legs of Conklin to put the Flames back up by three. Things would get scary after that. Johan Franzen would snap his 31st of the season off the bar and in, and three minutes later Jiri Hudler would beat Dion Phaneuf like a rented mule and fire the puck past a helpless Kiprusoff and the crowd was suddenly in shock. But in the final two minutes of the game, Calgary would put the pressure back on the Wings, and Craig Conroy would net his tenth of the season into the empty net to seal the deal.
Three Stars
1. Mike Cammalleri: Cammalleri probably played his most inspired game since the acquisition of Olli Jokinen.
2. Pavel Datsyuk: Datsyuk was dangerous all night long. He was making offensive plays that would boggle the mind of most watching him.
3. Craig Conroy: The yeoman forward for the Flames was particularly effective on the forecheck, and his hard word generated the game winning goal.
Big Save
The OMGWTFLOLBBQ moment of the night was between the second and third Flames goals as Cory Sarich pulled the puck off the goal line after a series of weird bounces where Kiprusoff made the save, and then the puck went off the post, off his skate, off the post again and drifted along the line before Sarich cleared it. Woah.
Big Hit
It was the Red Wings, so the search for a big hit continues. While the Flames had plenty of hits, nothing spectacular was seen.
The Donkey
No doubt about it…it was Chris Osgood. Osgood was just appalling for the Red Wings tonight. Having come off a rather spectacular month of March, the Flames got some good breaks with his terrible play in net. None of the goals he allowed should have gone in.
Mr. Clutch
Probably have to go with Cory Sarich again, just look up at that weird play in the second. If that puck goes in, it probably changes how this game ended. Giving the Red Wings some confidence after the weak sauce to start the second.
Odds and Ends
Eric Nystrom rules. Seriously. Don Cherry thinks so too, and for the same reason I do. He’s just awesome. He’s a shot blocking machine akin to ol’ Sandbox of yesteryear, he scores timely goals when he does score them, he’s a monster on the penalty kill, and his enthusiasm for the game and for being a part of the Flames team are what sets him above many in my Flames man-crush room. I can even overlook his bald spot. Keep him around forever please!
Continuing on the efforts of the fourth line players, it seems safe to say that come playoff time the chances of Warren Peters sticking around are pretty good. He makes the safe plays, plays hard in the minutes he’s given, and helps create a solid fourth line even in the midst of major injuries. What does this mean for a player like Jamie Lundmark though? Lundmark has filled a role for the Flames in the absence of players like Bertuzzi and Bourque, but when those two return, Lundmark will probably head back to the AHL. But.. come playoff time, expect to see him back in Calgary.
But the player who has really started to stand out for me has to be Dustin Boyd. For the first three-quarters of the season I’ve viewed Boyd as a player weak on his skates, who can’t be trusted to play in the top six because of his lack of strength. But somehow, of late, he’s looking much stronger. He’s even starting to look bigger too! Very odd, but very good news for the Flames all the same.
Next Up
Calgary heads out to Pittsburg for a game on Wednesday night. Game starts at 5:30PM MT and you can watch it on TSN.
Lines (At Times):
Boyd – Jokinen – Iginla
Glencross – Conroy – Moss
Cammalleri – Langkow – Lundmark
Van der Gulik – Peters – Nystrom
Phaneuf – Vandermeer
Regehr – Aucoin
Sarich – Leopold
Kiprusoff
