When news broke this morning that Miikka Kiprusoff wasn’t even able to strap on the pads for the morning skate, and that Curtis McElhinney was going to be the unplanned starter Flames fans around the world have to admit that they had a sinking feeling set in. Then again there were others who viewed this as pretty much the perfect situation for McElhinney to prove his worth.
The final result will do wonders for the young and struggling Flames backup even if it came under dubious circumstances. A real shot in the arm for his confidence.. ehh.. ehh… yeah, that was bad.
On The Line
Both teams come into the contest losing their last two. The loser officially in a losing streak. The biggest thing on the line for Calgary was how McElhinney would play given he’ll likely start back to back with Kiprusoff sick with flu like symptoms.
The Flow
While no goals were scored in the first period, the pace was frenetic with action going up and down the ice. McElhinney looked to have trouble finding the puck at the onset, but everything started to settle down, interestingly enough, during a Craig Conroy penalty kill. The Flames played a smart penalty kill strategy, blocking shots, playing with urgency and supporting the guys on the ice. At this point you can tell I watched TSN. Things culminated for the Flames when Adam Pardy and Nigel Dawes were both sitting in the box. The Stars hardly had any good scoring opportunities and as the period wore on McElhinney looked more and more comfortable.
The second saw the Stars take a bit more of an edge in the play, but with a furious pace shared by both teams. Calgary struggled to maintain pressure in the zone and get pucks on net, or to get to rebounds, and the Stars started to stretch out the Flames defence with stretch passes, most emanating from Marty Turco. The biggest play of the game coming midway through the frame as Adam Pardy got caught flat footed and hooked down Brendan Morrow which resulted in, you got it, a penalty shot. A worried Pardy could only watch and pray that McElhinney could come up with the save, and his head bowed in relief as McElhinney was up to the task. Late in the period the Stars got caught with a pinching defenceman and the puck squirted out to Jarome Iginla who led a three on one into the Dallas zone. Iginla looked for a pass, decided to shoot and ripped a shot past Turco for his fifth of the season.
The third was far more exciting from the goal scoring perspective. At this point the Stars really started to take over the play. Spending more and more time in the Flames zone. At 4:49 of the third the McElhinney dam finally broke. The Stars took advantage of a tired Flames team that had seen the puck stay in their own zone for far too long getting stretched out with passes until James Neal was spotted alone at the side of the net and roofed the puck past a helpless McElhinney. Just a few minutes later the Stars took the lead on Louis Eriksson’s sixth goal of the season and the hope for McElhinney’s second win seemed to be fading into the distance. The Flames however had other plans in mind as they started to wear down the Stars in the final five minutes of the third until, with McElhinney on the bench Rene Bourque and Jarome Iginla combined to fish the puck out of Stephane Robidas doing his best Dave Andreychuck “sit on the puck and wait it out” move feeding it to Daymond Langkow who slid the puck past the left leg of Turco to secure at least a point.
Overtime was all Calgary. Prior to the Stars being called for a ridiculously poor delay of game penalty, the likes of Rene Bourque had the Stars pinned in their own zone trying to figure out how to get the puck through the Flames forecheck. Turns out they needn’t bother. Nik Grossman got called for delay of game despite the fact he was more than a foot on the safe side of his own blueline. Jarome Iginla made short work of Turco at that point. Iginla fired a puck form the half boards with Olli Jokinen providing a screen for the game winner.
Three Stars
1. Jarome Iginla: Finally a game where Iginla battled and won. His three points were great, but it was better to see him playing physically and effectively.
2. Curtis McElhinney: A good outing for number 1. He was iffy at times, but as the game wore on, he seemed to gain confidence and didn’t deflate when the Stars scored on him in the third.
3. Stephane Robidas: Launched Morrow on the breakaway for the penalty shot, led the Stars in ice time and led all players with 5 blocked shots.
Big Save
There was no save bigger than the penalty shot on Brendan Morrow. Making that save should instill a lot more confidence in the backup for the players, the coaches, and hopefully the fans.
Big Hit
As the Stars were trying to get in behind the Flames defence, James Neal was the test victim who was behind Robyn Regehr but who was an easy target for the Tunnel of Doom. Regehr threw his first big SMASH! of the season.
The Goat
There is no way this can go to anyone other than the refs. The penalty to the Stars in overtime is a great reason to do a review of the play to ensure that a penalty is actually warranted…since the refs can’t seem to figure it out for themselves.
Mr. Clutch
Tonight this is none other than Jarome Iginla. Iginla’s opening goal, his puck battle win and setup for the game tying goal, and his sniper shot of a winner were all clutch.
Odds and Ends
It was really nice to see how comfortable Curtis McElhinney got as the game progressed. He started to see the puck better, follow shots, follow rebounds, and have better control over his rebounds than we’ve seen from him in the past. That being said he still has a lot to work on, and so do the guys in front of him. Dallas controlled the play, that’s not a negative to the Flames, it’s a fact. The Flames were exposed on the back end and the stretch passes getting through the neutral zone were a key reason the Flames were so heavily out-shot in the game (40-23). Shot’s aren’t everything, and McElhinney saw most of the shots that came at him, but there were a few heartburn moments where the puck slid ever so close to the open side of the net. Hopefully this game, and perhaps getting the start tomorrow in St. Louis can help turn around the career of a Calgary kid who seemed destined to a one way ticket out of town…Of course the biggest topic surrounding the Flames has been the H1N1 “scandal” about the team receiving flu shots. That topic is stupid and I don’t want to waste my time or yours discussing it…There’s a lot of talk about the chemistry of the second line of Dawes – Langkow – Bourque, but I have a different opinion. There is a lot of chemistry generated by the play of Rene Bourque. Dawes is invisible on that line, and Langkow is doing good things, but him and Bourque are working on one side and Dawes is bunging everything up. Time for a change on that side. I’d like to see Iginla teamed up with Langkow and Bourque teamed with Jokinen. If Jokinen is forced to keep up with the WHARRGARBLE tenacity of Bourque it could help him get his feet moving, and that would go a LONG way in helping Jokinen stop being so god awful.
Next Up
The Flames have no time to think about this one as they head over to St. Louis to take on the Blues. Game time is 6:30 PM and can be seen on flames.nhl.com or heard on the Fan 960.
Lines:
Nystrom – Jokinen – Iginla
Dawes – Langkow – Bourque
Glencross – Boyd – Moss
Sjostrom – Conroy – McGratten
Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester
Pardy – Sarich
McElhinney
