Sometimes it seems as though the playing field is tilted against you. Struggling through the first third of the season, the Calgary Flames had just started to find their game when the injury bug bit – hard. The revolving door to sick bay has the Flames sitting second in the NHL in man-games lost to injury, and it’s not small names either. Alex Tanguay missed 16 games. David Moss has been out for 38 games. Curtis Glencross was leading the team in goals before his injury. Lee Stempniak was just starting to heat up when he went down. Now newcomer Blair Jones is sidelined with a broken ankle suffered while blocking a shot against Phoenix on Thursday night. It’s enough to drive a Mormon to drink. Through all of this, though, the team has found enough grit to stay within spitting distance of a playoff spot. Unfortunately, they are caught in the dogfight for those last couple of tickets to the dance, and none of the teams around them are in a giving mood. The Flames were lucky enough to bring home 4 of a possible 6 points from their recent three game road trip, but two of those games were losses, and the last one really stung. One would expect the team to be in a bad mood then, which is always fitting for a date with the hated Vancouver Canucks.
On The Line
Points. It may sound overly simplistic, but with the ultra-tight playoff race in the western conference, the value of those points cannot be overstated. With only two points separating four teams in the 9 through 12 spots, a single loss can put the playoffs out of reach. With Phoenix winning earlier in the day and bumping the Flames to 4 points out of 8th, it is no exaggeration to say that every game is vital from here on out.
The Flow
Vancouver owns the play early on, not giving the Flames much of anything in terms of opportunities. In fact, it takes the boys in retro red more than 8 minutes to mount a single shot on goal, which doesn’t bode well for a team that has struggled offensively as of late. Luckily, Miikka Kiprusoff is solid and keeps the puck out of the net until his team can find their legs. Lance Bouma provides the spark the team needs when he squares off with The Canucks’ Mike Duco, and moments later Mike Cammalleri fires the first Calgary shot on Roberto Luongo. Another chance comes from Alex Tanguay a minute later, and then the Flames are granted a power play opportunity when Alex Edler pops Mikael Backlund with an elbow behind the Vancouver net and gets sent off for interference. Unfortunately, the Flames aren’t able to do much with the man advantage, looking rather disjointed and only managing one lowly shot on goal. With a little less than three minutes left in the period, Blake Comeau carries the puck behind the Vancouver net and flings a pass into the slot for a waiting Mike Cammalleri. Cammalleri’s shot is stopped, but the rebound bounces off his chest and past Roberto Luongo. Not the most elegant goal, but it holds up to a review and is enough to stake the Flames to a 1-0 lead. They get a chance to add to that lead before the end of the period, when Andrew Alberts levels Roman Horak in front of the Canucks bench and gets sent off for boarding. Again though, the Flames aren’t able to generate much against Vancouver’s aggressive penalty kill and the end of the period sends them to the dressing room with a one goal advantage.
The second period picks up right where the first left off, with more physical, fast-paced hockey. 2:41 in, Cory Sarich pays the price to keep the puck in the Vancouver zone and fires it deep behind the enemy net. Lance Bouma picks it up and slides a pass out into the slot, where a waiting Roman Horak grabs it and roofs a quick shot that catches Luongo looking the other way for a 2-0 Calgary lead. The Canucks respond by ratcheting up the physical play, and heavy hits are thrown up and down the ice. Andrew Alberts strikes again when he levels a stumbling Blake Comeau along the boards, earning himself a charging penalty to go along with his double minor for roughing. Unfortunately for the Flames, they lose Mikael Backlund to what appears to be an arm injury after he attempts to come to the rescue and gets pounded and thrown to the ice by Alberts. The Canucks get an opportunity to put their #1-ranked power play to work when Alex Tanguay somehow misses an icing call and pounds Aaron Rome into the end boards, but despite a few dangerous-looking goalmouth scrambles, the best the Canucks can manage is a couple of shots off the post. Shortly after the penalty expires, Tim Jackman makes Andrew Alberts pay the piper in a brief but heavy-hitting scrap. The Canucks seem to gain some momentum from the scrap and mount a few late pushes, creating enough havoc in the Calgary zone for Cody Hodgson to bat a rebound past Miikka Kiprusoff to get the Canucks on the board before the end of the period.
The third starts out with a more moderate pace, leaving one to wonder if the Flames are going to try and sit on their one goal lead. They manage to kill off a Blake Comeau slashing penalty, but it’s clear that the Canucks are gaining momentum. The Flames manage to hold the tide at bay until the 8-minute mark of the period, when David Booth is the beneficiary of a lucky bounce off of Blake Comeau’s skate and manages to rip a shot past Kiprusoff to knot the score at two. Brent Sutter calls a timeout to keep his team focused, but from that point on the period is almost all Canucks. Vancouver dominates the game territorially, hammering shot after shot towards the Calgary goal and keeping the Flames mostly on their heels. Iginla has a chance to regain the lead when Tanguay springs him on a breakaway, but Luongo foils his wrist shot with a quick glove hand. The Flames are ultimately outshot 12-6 in the 3rd, and only the heroics of Miikka Kiprusoff allow them to withstand the barrage of the last few minutes and escape to overtime with the score tied and at least a single point in the bank.
Overtime begins with the Canucks trying to carry over their momentum from the third period, and thinks don’t look good for the Flames when Jay Bouwmeester gets sent off on a weak holding call. It feels like we’ve seen this movie before, and you have to imagine that the memory of OT losses in Ottawa and Phoenix are still very fresh in the Calgary players’ minds. Strangely enough, the officials even things up with an equally weak tripping call on Daniel Sedin, leading to a wide-open, 3-on-3 extra period. The Flames are held without a single shot on goal while the Canucks manage to direct 4 towards Kiprusoff, but the numbers on the scoreboard remain even.
With overtime having solved nothing, it’s off to the shootout for the Flames: an area of the game that hasn’t always treated them kindly. With the Flames electing to shoot first, Olli Jokinen gets the party started with a nifty move to spread Luongo out and slip the puck through the five hole to stake the Flames to an early lead. Following a miss by Alex Edler and a muffed shot by Alex Tanguay, Alex Burrows completes the Alex trifecta by beating Kiprusoff to draw the Canucks even. Next up, Jarome Iginla converts on a diving play to put the Flames back in front, and Kipper seals the deal when he stacks the pads to deny Mason Raymond and secure the win.
Three Stars
- Miikka Kiprusoff: Stood tall on a night when the Flames were outshot 31-18, and many of the Vancouver chances were quality chances. Sometimes a team needs its goaltender to steal them a game here and there, and Kiprusoff has definitely done his part to keep his squad in the hunt for a playoff spot.
- Alexander Edler: An assist, 6 shots on goal, and over 26 minutes of ice time for Vancouver’s steadiest defender.
- Jarome Iginla: Anytime you score a shootout winner you should get star consideration, and that’s what put the captain on the list after a solid but unspectacular game.
Big Save
Late in the third period with the Flames under siege, Miikka Kiprusoff made a series of dazzling saves to preserve the tie and guarantee the Flames a point. Kiprusoff was very good all night, and his standup play was the main reason the Flames came out of this one with 2 points.
Big Hit
There weren’t any standout hits in this game, even though the overall tone was very gritty and physical. Even Jay Bouwmeester got into the swing of things, throwing his body around with some rare authority during the first period. The most physical player of the game, however, has to go to the Canucks’ Andrew Alberts. Some of his hits were borderline and others were downright dirty, but we was a thorn in the side of the Calgary Flames all night long – and took home the 11 PIM to show for it.
The Goat
Hard to assign a goat in a blood & guts win over the 3rd place team in the league. Mikael Backlund continued to struggle, but showed some heart in attempting to avenge Andrew Alberts’ nasty hit on Blake Comeau. Unfortunately, he ended up getting himself hurt in the resulting beatdown he received from Alberts; an injury that the Flames can ill afford right now.
Odds and Ends
Nice to see the Flames step up for a hard-won victory on the night Miikka Kiprusoff was honoured for his 300th win, and fitting that the win came largely on the back of the man wearing number 34. The highlights montage that was run on the jumbotron served as a reminder of some of the heart-stoppingly phenomenal play that “Kipper” has provided over the years. One of the most significant trades in franchise history indeed……..wouldn’t it be great if someone actually played the game with their silver stick?……..Matt Stajan has scored a whopping 10 goals in a Flames uniform. Yes, ten. As in one-zero. For a guy making $4.5M this year, that is so far beyond ridiculous it defies all logic. Seeing as he also made $4.5M last season and $1.75M the year he was traded here, the math works out to pretty close to $1m per goal. I need to stop talking about this now or I’m going to throw something. Something like this computer……..Seriously, when will the injuries stop? It seems like another player goes down every game. Even though he hasn’t been playing well, the Flames really can’t afford to lose Mikael Backlund. Here’s hoping that whatever his injury was, it isn’t serious. I suppose the upside is that there has been no lack of opportunity this year for the young players down in Abbotsford to get a chance at some NHL ice time……..Congratulations to Peter Maher for 3000 Flames games called – consecutively. Jay Bouwmeester, your iron man streak has a long way to go before you can compete with “the voice”. Awesome that the Flames were able to pull out a win to celebrate the milestone as well. Peter is truly one of the all-time greats and we are extremely lucky to have him here in Calgary. Thank you Peter!!!
Next Up
The Flames get a couple of days off before the Toronto Maple Leafs visit the Saddledome on Tuesday night. Game time is 7pm on Sportsnet West.
Lines (To Start):
Tanguay – Jokinen – Iginla
Cammalleri – Backlund – Comeau
Bouma – Horak – Kolanos
Kostopolous – Stajan – Jackman
Butler – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Hannan
Brodie – Sarich
