Heading into Saturday night’s contest the talk centered around the unfinished business left between Dion Phaneuf and Sean Avery after Avery’s disparaging remarks as a Dallas Star midway through last season. Avery, the ever quotable, ever despicable agitator who found his greatest success in New York was far more focused on the task at hand: trying to stop the Flames who are heating up as the November weather cools down.
The fireworks subdued as expected, and when the dust settled the Flames had a 3-1 win and their third straight in the month of November.
On The Line
As much as any game is really on the line. The Flames are hoping to continue piling up points in an unfriendly month of November that sees the team suiting up for far more action than October did.
The Flow
The game started with quite the bang within the first minute of play as the whistle blew and former Flames and Rangers captain Chris Drury was in a heap in the Rangers zone. Curtis Glencross caught Drury unawares with a shoulder to the head and Drury needed help getting off the ice and into the dressing room, not returning to the game. The Rangers still responded with a good start, outshooting the Flames 5-0 in the first few minutes, most of those shots coming on a close in flurry of chances where Miikka Kiprusoff flashed the pads a number of times while desperately trying to track down the puck to freeze it for a whistle. Despite the strong play of the Rangers to start, Calgary was the first to open the scoring when Adam Pardy wristed a puck that Daymond Langkow tipped with Rene Bourque providing a screen. The Rangers would tie things up before the end of the first when Daniel Girardi shot towards the net and the puck seemed to take at least one bounce on it’s way past Kiprusoff.
Where the first period saw the Flames seemingly skating in mud, after the puck dropped in the second Calgary started to move their feet and the play came back around for the good guys, except for the inability to get the puck out of the zone. Calgary had a glorious chance to regain the lead with a five on three where one defender was missing a stick, but poor Olli Jokinen playing hot potato with the puck and Jarome Iginla somehow not scoring on a cross crease pass from Jokinen meant that the Flames had to wait until a bizarre penalty call where Rene Bourque got tagged for cross checking and Ales Kotalik got four for high-sticking Conroy, a penalty that likely was called by the linesman after the play finished. On the ensuing power-play Nigel Dawes found a wide open Iginla in the slot who made no mistake burying the puck past Valiquette.
Enter the third period and the Flames seemed to start trying to play a shut down game, which predictably meant that they were out shot 13-5 as the Rangers pressed for an equalizer. The biggest issue for the Flames remaining to be their ability to get the puck out of their own zone. The shots might have been a little more even if Jokinen was able to handle the puck without thinking it was a live grenade as the struggling center missed on several scoring chances. It wasn’t until late in the third when the Flames broke in on a three on one with Bourque and Dawes playing give and go until Bourque fired home his sixth of the season. That was all she wrote as the Rangers pulled the goalie with over two minutes remaining, but were unable to generate much other than a chant of “SHOOOOOOT” when Kiprusoff stopped the puck behind his net.
Three Stars
1. Miikka Kiprusoff: This was vintage Kiprusoff. He was calm, collected, made all the saves he needed to, and had great rebound placement.
2. Nigel Dawes: A three assist night for Dawes garners him second star honours. A much better showing from Dawes after some recent defensive misgivings.
3. Dion Phaneuf: The Avery thing aside, Phaneuf was actually very solid in his own zone as he and Regehr teamed up to shut down the Flame killer Marion Gaborik.
Big Save
Likely the flurry of shots right off the bat that Kiprusoff saved were big ones, because as the Flames were still trying to find their legs, trying to start a comeback when you can’t even skate properly would have made a real challenge.
Big Hit
Definitely the hit by Glencross on Drury. Bad result, and there should have been at least 2 minutes for interference on the play. Nasty to see a head hit, but it’s hard to tell if it was fully intentional. The replays at the dome made it look incidental, but highlights do paint a good picture of intent by Glencross. With even more attention being paid to hits to the head, this hit could receive a suspension if the NHL decides to take a stand on the issue.
The Goat
While Olli Jokinen is certainly trying, he’s also certainly one of the worst players on the ice for Calgary. Clearly suffering from confidence issues, his puck bumbles could have really cost the Flames if they didn’t get scoring elsewhere.
Mr. Clutch
Paging Mr. Kiprusoff…Mr. Kiprusoff to the Flames goal for awesomeness. If there is even the slightest chance of flu for Kiprusoff, he didn’t show it tonight as he was simply outstanding for the Flames tonight. Always tracking the lose pucks and no softies.
Odds and Ends
One more word on Jokinen: he’s very clearly trying hard, but I have to think that he’s focusing on the wrong things. Compare what Rene Bourque does when even at the end of a shift, he’s the lead forechecker, to what Jokinen does. Jokinen simply stops skating when he enters the attacking zone, and if he starts moving his feet more and focuses on mowing down anyone in his path rather then getting around them, or wondering if he’ll turn the puck over, he should see a lot more success and scoring opportunities. Someone show him that game against the Leafs last season.
The Flames inability to clear the zone is really frustrating and as Brent Sutter systematically destroys all of the Flames bad habits, you have to think that this is next. The Flames have a nasty habit of making poor decisions in the defensive zone. Forwards pass back to the defence or try to clear the zone without sending the puck all the way down the ice and this usually generates a turnover. The defence are passing to forwards being checked, holding onto the puck a little too long, and not helping start breakouts. This of course excludes Jay Bouwmeester who seems to have fewer instances of these.
Next Up
The Flames head to Montreal on Tuesday night to take on the Habs on Sportsnet West and RDS (both in HD) starting at 5:30 PM.
Lines:
Moss – Jokinen – Iginla
Dawes – Langkow – Bourque
Glencross – Boyd – Nystrom
Sjostrom – Conroy – McGratten
Regehr – Phaneuf
Sarich – Bouwmeester
Pardy – Giordano
Kiprusoff
