After a fantastic NHL hockey game a couple nights ago, the Flames take their single point down the I-5 to Los Angeles, for the second meeting with the Kings in 5 days. The Flames and Sharks played a superb playoff style game, complete with playoff style refereeing. Although the team fell short, the effort and intensity were dialed up. The game previous to that was against these same Kings, in Darryl Sutter’s return to Calgary. The Flames had the best early chances hitting posts and crossbars, along with not being able to beat the Kings’ goalie when presented with great opportunities, before the Kings capitalized on a fluke bounce and a questionable powerplay to take an early lead, and then shut the Flames down. Calgary will hope for a similar effort from these past two games tonight, to once again try and slay the Kings, win the first road game in 6, and prevent them from gaining a wider gap in the Western Conference standings.
On The Line
On the line this evening, a cliched yet important 4 point game, given each team’s current standings. Win this game, and the Flames are breathing down the Kings’ necks at the playoff threshold, or, come out on the wrong end and be 3+ wins away to make up ground. The Flames are without their top goal scorer, and are welcoming back centre Matthew Stajan, out with an ankle injury for around a month. Overall, not the easiest of tasks, and often the Flames have a bit of a let down after such an intense game. Hopefully the refereeing as well is more like Tuesday’s game, not a penalty fest, for the sake of watch-ability, and, for the Flames chances. Overall, these are the games that the Flames have to find ways to win, in any way possible, as this is likely to be the swing game as to a successful road trip (with still one to play), or a disappointing one.
The Flow
The first period starts with the Flames looking that half step behind the Kings. No glorious chances, but the visitors look more like followers than leaders on the ice. Even though the Kings look like they have a bit more jump, the Kings first goal was one of those broken plays that somehow ends the puck end in the Flames net. The Kings rush is handled by the Flames defense as they team enters..the puck slides off the Kings players stick, and out of nowhere, as the Flames defenders reach for the loose puck, Dustin Brown skips past Tim Jackman to hack a shot on net, surprising Miikka Kiprusoff. Most of the time that play doesn’t register as a scoring chance, but Brown swooping in at the right place at the right time on the broken play and the Flames are down 6 minutes in. After some more pressure, Mikael Backlund takes a useless penalty in the Kings zone. The Flames do well on the penalty kill. Toss in a fight between Jackman and Kyle Clifford, and the Kings jump is quieted, and the period winds down uneventfully, and with few Flames shots, let alone chances. That looks to change, as the Flames get a late boost, and draw a penalty late, and, with less then 10 seconds to go, get a second penalty call, setting up a 2 man powerplay for just under a minute to start the 2nd. Shots are a tepid 8-3 for LA.
The second period and the powerplay that gave the team some hope, fizzles. Blair Jones on the point for the 5 on 3 that results in one shot. Two more shots on the 4 on 4, but the Kings had the best scoring chance. The period continues on, frustratingly so as the Flames generate little in chances and look completely out of sync, across all 4 forward lines. Kiprusoff with a few good saves, keeping it a one goal margin. A mid period bench penalty on the Kings allows the Flames another crack at a powerplay. It looks as dysfunctional as the previous ones. Every pass looks like an adventure and a lot harder than it should be, even with one Kings player without a stick. The play, as was painfully obvious for about 30 seconds, finally lands on Jarome Iginla’s stick, and he blasts a slapshot from the top of the circle, beating Jonathon Quick on the short side, for goal 502, and tying the game at 1. The game starts to open up a bit through the neutral zone, but again, the Flames look painfully inefficient working together as an offensive team. That said, the defensive zone running around is under control, and the period ends with both teams looking to be in lockdown mode. A nice last minute move by Blake Comeau results in a pinball of puck as 5 guys scramble to get the puck. Backlund finds the loose puck, but weakly shoots it on net. If he wants to be considered a goal scorer in this league, he has to stand in that traffic a half second longer to get some decent power or ability to get the puck up, and then take the hit that’s coming. In this case, far too soft, poking a stick in there quickly and ducking out of the way of the Kings coming after him. Second period shots are 10 – 9 for the Flames.
The Flames start the extremely crucial third period with increased confidence, taking the play to the Kings and not getting caught in their own zone as the team fell victim to in the first two periods. However, very little of note and a fairly scrappy first half of the period. Things started opening up with about 6 minutes to go. A bad Backlund giveaway in the offensive zone lead to an odd man rush. From that point on, the Kings had the Flames on their back feet, and the game opened up far too much more than the Flames looked comfortable with. A bad icing by TJ Brodie put the Flames under pressure again for about 45 seconds in the Flames zone. For the better part of the game the play was in the Flames zone, and you just had that worry that one of those pucks directed at net was going to deflect funny or bounce out right to a Kings’ player stick….and it almost did a couple times in the last two minutes. Another Backlund miscue with Bouwmeester in the zone with him, ends up with another odd man rush for the Kings with under a minute to go. The Flames survive, and yet again, a tough game, with a score 1-1, is going to be decided in extra time. Shots in the 3rd were 10-9 for the Kings, in an evenly played period.
Overtime was fairly cautious, with Blake Comeau just missing with a blast, and Jay Bouwmeester, very active tonight, with a good opportunity as well. Just as things were looking to go to a shoot out, within the last minute of of overtime, Scott Hannan pinching in is foiled with a stack of the pads. On the same sequence, Mark Giordano pinches, and a 2 on 1 for the Kings. Slava Voynov takes the shot that gets tangled up in Kiprusoff’s equipment, and drops in the blue paint, inches away from Dustin Penner’s stick…Kiprusoff reaches with his stick, and out muscles Penner’s attempt to jam it in. The rebound from all this comes out and Kiprusoff sprawls back into somewhat of position and the rebound shot slides under his leg, but hits the bottom of his pants and stays out. Unbelievable. Giordano got a penalty on the play, which allowed a couple more Kings chances with only 30 seconds left in OT. From a shot from the point, the aforementioned dreaded carom off of a body landed right on Dustin Brown’s stick, but a bouncing puck and a no-nonsense clearing of the front of the net by Scott Hannan meant Brown couldn’t get a full handle on the puck. Whew. Off to a shootout we go.
In the shootout, the Kings score first, Olli Jokinen with a smooth move to put it over Quick’s blocker. Jack Johnson can’t beat Kiprusoff’s poke check with one shot, so tries to pull one over by tapping the puck twice. Mike Cammalleri then does the double leg pump and also goes high blocker on quick. Mike Richards tries blocker on Kiprusoff, but the fist pump by the Flames goalie signifies a Flames win.
Three Stars
- Miikka Kiprusoff: Time and again and again, this man single-handedly saves the Flames in games. Whether it be in spectacular fashion as in tonight where he gets hung out to dry by his teammates, or whether it be the subtle yet extremely tough save that doesn’t get recognized for it difficulty or importance, he is the quiet constant that has buoyed this franchise game by game, month by month, and season by season, and done so in a quiet, classy, elegant way. Tonight, the highlights speak for themselves.
- Miika Kiprusoff: See above.
- Miika Kiprusoff: See #1. There was no other player in the same stratosphere. Some of the defenseman played well like Hannan and Bouwmeester, but without #34, the Flames lose by 3 or 4.
Big Save
Take your pick, but Kirpusoff’s save sequence as the overtime was winding down, using the paddle to out-muscle Dustin Penner trying to tap it across, and then getting as much of his frame across the net, and saves the rebound with his glutious maximus, saves the day in spectacular fashion.
Big Hit
Blake Comeau hits Kings defenseman Slava Volonov with as a square as shoulder check as one can, dumping the Russian in the corner in the second period.
Mr. Clutch
Star #1,2,3. From first period heroics, to second period consistency, to third period incredible-ness and a solid shootout, the Flames Finnish goaltender is the hands down definition of clutch.
Odds and Ends
Solid result and necessary two points. Big smiles after that game. hopefully means another momentum boost through increased confidence. Those are the games needed to win, and the Flames hung in and hung in, and played a decent third, until the Kings took a big push in the last 5 minutes. A note about officiating, once again very good. Playoff style, which is odd to see, but its consistent, which is as important as anything. Great to see the Flames have some shootout success, with confident moves from Jokinen and Cammalleri. Jay Bouwmeester with over 27 minutes of ice time, and some solid play, calmness and pose under pressure, Jarome Iginla with over 25 minutes. So, according to the Kings announcers, Dustin Brown had a better game than Miikka Kiprusoff and got the first star? Ok then. Cammalleri and Iginla guilty again of looking for each other too much for the one timers, and just in general through the neutral zone. Olli Jokinen, in this writer’s opinion, a much better choice for being able to carry, retrieve, and retain possession on that top line. However the “all eggs in one basket” rule applies here. But Jokinen’s effective play was on display on the powerplay goal from Iginla. Fighting off defenders and winning battles to retain the puck and eventually ends up on Iginla’s stick. The 4th line, something Charlie Simmer somehow saw as a necessary strategy again another team with 4 lines (doesn’t that happen most games?), saw less than 9 minutes each. TJ Brodie was to take the third Flames shootout shot, which was not required. Faceoffs were almost 50/50, which is an improvement over the Flames season average. Good news as Alex Tanguay may be back as soon as Saturday. Will be interesting to see the lines as the lines, as with Cammalleri and now the loss of Curtis Glencross, have resulted in little to no offensive chemistry, which is troubling. Iginla’s goal ties him with Hell’s Kitchen native, the classy and underrated Joe Mullen.
Next Up
Next up, Hockey Day in Canada on Saturday sees the Flames head back close to home to take on the hapless Oilers. A required win for the Flames, and always a dangerous game after now two emotional and strong games against much stronger opponents. 8pm, CBC, on Saturday.
Lines (To Start):
Cammalleri – Backlund – Iginla
Comeau – Jokinen – Stempniak
Horak- Jones-Bouma
Jackman – Stajan – Kotsopolous
Hannan – Brodie
Bouwmeester – Butler
Sarich – Giordano
