Well, one monkey is off the back…will Calgary be able to shake the other tonight?
Last night in Dallas, Curtis McElhinney was finally able to win a meaningful regular season game for the Calgary Flames. His only other NHL win being a meaningless end of season game last year with nothing on the line. The team in front of him still needed to be better, but at least they got him the W. Tonight, one of the other bane’s of the Flames existence is in line to be put to death by firing squad. That being the team’s inability to capture wins in back-to-back games on consecutive nights, something Calgary hasn’t done in almost a full calendar year.
On The Line
Calgary looking to win on back-to-back nights, and keep pace with the other teams in the West that have moved ahead in the standings on merit of more games played. After losing 2 in a row, the Flames want to build off last night’s win and start a streak of a different kind. For St. Louis, they have been shut-out in 2 straight games and desperately want to stop that nasty trend, and end their losing streak at the same time. Robyn Regehr has a 6 game assist streak on the line as well, something you don’t see too often, especially from a player as un-offensively minded as #28.
The Flow
The Blues applied all the pressure early on, providing Miikka Kiprusoff with no time to relax with 2 early chances, which included a Brad Boyes wrist shot which Kiprusoff snared with his trapper to keep things from getting out of hand early. Calgary opened the scoring at 3:34 as Mr. November – Jarome Iginla was sprung in on a breakaway by a pass from Jokinen and fired a wrist shot which Chris Mason found a chunk of. The puck started to trickle over the line but Mason managed to glove it to safety. Just as Mason saved the day, Eric Brewer came in hard with his stick trying to help his netminder, but instead shovelled the loose puck in to the cage for the game’s opening goal and an early lead. The rest of the period was fairly uneventful and the Flames went to the dressing room with the 1 goal lead.
It was all St. louis to start the 2nd period. The Blues had all the pressure early and earned themselves a 5-on-3 powerplay for 1:37 as Conroy and Langkow took back-to-back hooking penalties, a great chance to break their shut-out streak. However, the Blues lacked coordination and puck movement and Kiprusoff stood his ground, giving the Flames a successful kill. 6 shots for the Blues, but Kiprusoff turned them all away. The Blues had almost all the scoring chances in the 2nd period, but Kiprusoff just wasn’t having it. Shots were 16-8 in the period in favour of STL, but the score remained 1-0 heading to the 3rd.
The third started with Flames pressure, and an early powerplay saw them fire 4 pucks at Mason but all were denied by the large Blues netminder. The Blues tied the game and broke their shut-out streak at the end of a powerplay when Erik Johnson fired a point shot which was deflected by Lars Eller past Kiprusoff. It was the Danish forward’s first NHL goal in his very first NHL game. Both teams traded chances and the Flames miss fired on a late powerplay chance, sending the game to overtime for a 2nd straight night.
Overtime was slanted in Calgary’s favour, out shooting STL 3-0. The game would find an end at 2:50 in to the extra frame as Dion Phaneuf blasted a shot past Mason that deflected off a Blues defender. Game over, 4 points in 2 nights.
Three Stars
1. Miikka Kiprusoff: Must not have been much of a flu, he recovered quickly. The Flames netminder was spectacular, especially during the 5-on-3 Blues advantage early in the 2nd period. Allowed only 1 goal on 31 shots.
2. Jarome Iginla: Scored an early goal, and led Flames’ forwards in icetime with 23:15. Fired 4 shots on net, and has now had 2 very good games in a row which is obviously a great sign from here on out.
3. Chris Mason: Matched Kiprusoff save for save until the end. Stopped 29 out of 31 shots and kept the game close.
Big Save
During the 5-on-3, Miikka Kiprusoff had to face a flurry of shots, and made 2 huge saves on Paul Kariya and Patrik Berglund just seconds apart. Kept the Flames up 1-0 and kept the Blues from gaining much momentum. Kiprusoff also robbed TJ Oshie in close with his glove just minutes later. Kiprusoff also went on to rob Paul Kariya with his glove at the end of the 3rd period. Basically, Kipper was on.
Big Hit
Corey Sarich laid a thundering shoulder check in to Brad Winchester as the Blues winger tried to bring the puck over the blueline. Great to see Sarich throwing his body around again.
The Goat
Eric Brewer was only trying to help. His first period gaffe trying to clear the puck but inadvertently putting it in to his own net cost his team dearly.
Mr. Clutch
For the 2nd night in a row, the Flames goaltender was the main reason the games went to overtime instead of ending in regulation losses. This night, it was Miikka Kiprusoff who was solid all night, and spectacular at times. #34 was on his game and the main reason the Flames won the game.
Odds and Ends
Ollie Jokinen looked pretty bad again. Not sure whats wrong with the guy…really odd. Jay Bouwmeester led the Flames with 29:47 in ice time. Shots were 32-31 in favour of Calgary. Robyn Regehr’s point streak ends at 6 games. Brian McGrattan only played 1:52, and you have to wonder if that spot could have been better served by Brandon Prust who would supply much more time than that. Calgary didn’t play their best hockey in either game, in fact…they played pretty poorly, but still managed to get 4 points. That is a product of great goaltending and the captain waking up, 2 ways the Flames were NOT winning games earlier in the year. Paul Kariya sure impressed me. Anyone else think he might be playing his way on to team Canada’s radar? Calgary’s overtime record is 3-1, a nice change from previous years.
Next Up
Sean Avery and the New York Rangers come to town for the much anticipated return of the Rangers pest since the derogatory comments from last season, when Avery was with the Stars. Game time 8:00, and you can catch it on CBC or the Fan 960.
Lines:
Nystrom – Jokinen – Iginla
Dawes – Langkow – Bourque
Glencross – Boyd – Moss
Sjostrom – Conroy – McGrattan
Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester
Pardy – Sarich
Kiprusoff
