Coming off of one of the worst showings in recent history for the Flames (at home), a game in which for the first time in my history as a fan, I walked out before the end of the game, the Flames looked to take on one of the strongest teams in the NHL in the New Jersey Devils.
This game was marked on the calendar for the Flames when the schedule came out as the first chance meeting between Brent Sutter’s new team and his old team. Luckily or unluckily for the Flames, just when they needed a win, they had the emotional attachment to win one for the gipper.
On The Line
At this point the entire season is on the line in pretty much every single game if the Flames want to be able to play hockey halfway into the month of April. The Flames needed a win to keep pace with the 8th place Detroit Red Wings.
The Flow
Calgary started the game with a lot more jump, physicality and emotion in this game than in the previous one. The Devils carried the play to start the game and held a distinct territorial advantage with the help of a couple of first period powerplays, but just past the half way mark of the game Zach Parise scored his 29th of the season to put the Devils up. Normally this is where you’d want to stop reading, but the Flames made it out of the first only down by one.
The Flames didn’t give up after allowing the first goal of the game. Starting with a great opening shift by the top line that sustained a good deal of pressure in the offensive zone, the Flames won three straight faceoffs after the Devils iced the puck and Daymond Langkow scored for the first time in 21 games from his knees on a play that Martin Brodeur should have had. That sentiment would repeat itself throughout the night. Calgary continued to pour on the pressure and goals getting a short handed breakaway goal from Curtis Glencross, followed by a gritty goal from Eric Nystrom due to hard work beating out an icing and then taking advantage of a sloppy Brodeur for the Long Island natives 7th of the season.
In the third the Flames made it look like it was out of reach with two goals 31 seconds apart from Matt Stajan and David Moss. Stajan found Brodeur’s five hole for a truly awful goal and Moss wreaked havoc in the Devils crease and took a Niklas Hagman rebound and tucked it behind the skate of Brodeur. The Devils made things interesting with a Parise power-play goal (his second of the night) and an Ilya Kovalchuk goal, but that was as close as they’d get.
Three Stars
1. Curtis Glencross: Scored a beauty short handed and was instrumental on Nystrom’s goal.
2. Eric Nystrom: The picture of what hard work and crashing the net can do for you.
3. Zach Parise: The silver medallist with his two goals was dangerous all night.
Big Save
Not a lot of impact saves tonight. Brodeur was terrible all night and Kiprusoff simply did what he had to in order to win.
Big Hit
Jamal Mayers caught Vladimir Zharkov by the benches at centre ice with a huge hit and followed it up by trading punches with David Clarkson.
The Goat
Without a doubt this is a different game without Martin Brodeur struggling mightily. His rebound control was probably still sitting on the bench in GM (Hockey Canada) Place, he was lackadaisical and his performance cost his team two points.
Mr. Clutch
This one goes to Curtis Glencross for playing Ilya Kovalchuk perfectly on the power-play stripping the puck and roofing it on Brodeur, following that up with a crucial effort to create the third goal.
Odds and Ends
This is a game with two sides to the coin. The good side being a sign of what happens when you in the words of Ryan McGill “get bodies to the net and follow that up with pucks to the net.” Quite simply that was a major reason for the Flames win tonight. The bad side of the coin was that this isn’t the best indication of what the Flames are capable of. Martin Brodeur was as mentioned in the Goat section, just awful. You can argue that a couple of ways, the Flames work ethic and strategy was part of making him look awful, and this was definitely a swing back in the Flames favour for puck luck and bounces. Fans and players have become so accustomed to seeing some of those rebounds going just beyond a stick, or hopping over a cocked one timer, or hitting something on the way to the net that seeing the puck actually end up in a place where someone can score with it is just weird to see. With that dose of reality, let’s end things on the confidence building note, and don’t for a moment think that this doesn’t ease the minds of some of the players in some way.
Next Up
The Flames head over to Minnesota on Sunday afternoon thinking upon revenge for the despicable performance they put up on Wednesday night. Game time is 1PM on Sportsnet West.
Lines:
Bourque – Stajan – Iginla
Higgins – Langkow – Kotalik
Hagman – Backlund – Moss
Nystrom – Mayers – Glencross
Regehr – White
Giordano – Sarich
Bouwmeester – Staios
Kiprusoff
