Facing the final game of the month of October, the Calgary Flames had a chance to get back to .500 taking on the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. Brimming with confidence after stopping the road warriors that are the Colorado Avalanche just two nights prior, the Flames looked to avenge a loss on Canadian Thanksgiving at the hand of these same Blues. Who would be the hero’s tonight?
On The Line
As mentioned the Flames had a chance to get to .500 on the season and make something out of what can only be classified as a mediocre start to the 2011-2012 season.
The Flow
This game started with the ice tilted towards the Flames zone, with the Blues buzzing early and often in the first. Starting out with a 4-1 edge in shots, the Flames eventually pulled nearly even by the end of the frame, but if you’re looking at scoring chances, the Blues absolutely dominated the Flames in the first period. If not for the heroics of Miikka Kiprusoff, this game could have been out of hand within the first 10 minutes.
The second period was even more in favour of the Blues, but it was the home team that came away with the first goal of the game. At 14:45 the Flames fourth line pairing of Tom Kostopolus and Tim Jackman with centre du shift Roman Horak, were rewarded with a rather pretty Gluten Free goal (term courtesy c.t.ner) from celiac forward Kostopolus as he took a pass from Jackman, working with Horak to create a turnover behind the net, and hit the far top corner giving the Flames a 1-0 lead after only generating 4 shots in the second period.
The Blues really put the pressure on in the third and had a brilliant opportunity to score on the power play. With the Flames two top defenders Bouwmeester and Giordano in the box, the Blues had nearly a full minute of 5 on 3 time to even the score, but the Flames penalty kill came up with a spectacular effort. Curiously in the 1:06 of 5 on 4 time that preceded the 5 on 3 advantage, the Blues had much better chances and simply missed the net on a couple of occasions to keep them off the scoresheet. So it was Calgary who picked up the next goal as Roman Horak continued his hot streak sneaking into the slot and taking a pass from Curtis Glencross and squeaked a shot through Brian Elliott to give the Flames rookie two points in two games. The Blues got back within one just 12 seconds later when Alexander Steen blasted a shot through an Olli Jokinen screen and past Kiprusoff, who simply didn’t see it. But try as the Blues might, the only other goal was Jokinen into the empty net as the Flames skated away with a 3-1 win, and a 4-4-1 record.
Three Stars
1. Miikka Kiprusoff: WIthout a doubt, the success of this game came off the shoulders of Kiprusoff. He was simply outstanding, making some incredible desperation saves.
2. Roman Horak: Horak continues to impress making appearances on 3/4 lines as the centre, picking up 2 points on 2/4 of them and netting the game winning goal. Impressive couple of games from the young Czech.
3. Tim Jackman: Two assists on the night, Jackman was a strong presence on the fourth line, creating turnovers and chances and working hard. Just what we expect from Jackman.
Big Save
There are numerous big saves, but none bigger than in the first period off of a play created by Mark Giordano’s weak clearing attempt that made him look like Bouwmeester, the Blues missed the net on a give and go between Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott, then Arnott picked up the puck again and shot it high on Kiprusoff. The puck jumped up in the air and fell right into the crease where Kiprusoff alertly smothered it before it crossed the line.
Big Hit
This game was void of physical play. The biggest hit being an interference penalty on Kent Huskins who crashed David Moss into Brian Elliott.
The Goat
Hate to say it, but Mark Giordano had a terrible game. His giveaway in the first was the glaring element of inconsistency, but he just seemed out of sync all game.
Mr. Clutch
This simply has to go to Kiprsuoff. Without his play, the Flames would not have won this game. We would have been far more likely to see the previous result against the Blues than this one.
Odds and Ends
The Flames decided to dress 11 forwards and 7 defencemen again so MATT STAJAN! was for the second straight game, dressed up as the ghost of scorers past in the press box along with Hagman and Leblond. It will be very curious to see how things shake out when Mikael Backlund returns to the Flames line up. Roman Horak has at this point definitely done enough to warrant a change to his number. If not on the score sheet, he is at minimum defensively responsible, sharing the team lead in +/- at +3 with Nik Hagman. His 5 points now put him ahead of Jarome Iginla in team scoring, and the rotating centre ice slotting with Stajan out of the lineup gave Horak the opportunity to play nearly 18 minutes, including some limited power play and short handed time.
It was almost literally painful to watch the Flames power play on Friday night. The inability to gain the zone was incredibly frustrating to fans, who resorted to booing at the end of the power play on a couple of occasions. When the Flames finally did gain the zone, they couldn’t seem to properly set up. The best example coming when the Flames attempted to use an umbrella formation only to have three players lined up in the middle of the ice, one in front of the net, one at the point and one in between, all who were static. This telegraphed the only real play with was a low percentage pass across the ice that was intercepted and shot down the ice. Contrast that with the Blues power play which used a similar formation, but had the players in constant movement, cycling the puck and getting pucks on net for scoring chances off of rebounds. It doesn’t seem so hard to fix, but frustrating as hell to watch.
Next Up
The Flames will be screening for bridge and tunnel crowds on Tuesday as they take on the Vancouver Canucks who are off to a riotous start. The action starts at 7:30 and you can watch everything go down on TSN.
Lines:
Tanguay – Morrison – Iginla
Glencross – Jokinen – Moss
Bourque – Horak – Hagman
Jackman – () – Kostopoulos
Butler – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Hannan
Smith – Sarich
Babchuk
Kiprusoff
