Calgary 4 Edmonton 1
No matter where, when, and in what sport or competition, victory over neighbors from the north ranks high on satisfying moments for Calgarians. Tonight, Calgary’s Flames, lead by a goalie from Calgary, hoped to put a successful cap on the Calgary Flames’ 28th regular season by beating the Oilers and securing the team’s 46th victory.
On The Line
With the NW division Crown already secured by Vancouver, tonight was truly a nothing game standings wise. It goes without saying, the Flames would’ve like to have some positivity come out of the contest on any number of fronts. With the squad having to play with a mere 15 players in consecutive games and nights for the first time in decades in the NHL, avoiding any more unfortunate luck in that regard was also high on the list of priorities.
The Flow
One would think that the back end of meaningless back to back setup of games for both clubs would turn out to even duller than the first lackluster meeting. However, clearly both teams had some skating legs left in them. A tentative first period had few highlights, although the Oilers seemed to have the run of play, but Curtis McElhinney got in front of everything he saw, and one could almost sense the confidence building save after save, bluntly said, that he didn’t have to pull the puck out of his net as he did the night before.
The second period was good old pond hockey, with 38 shots combined. Tom Gilbert opened the scoring for the Oilers on a wrap around off a rebound, that had Flames fans wondering why some Flame couldn’t get that break or bounce the last few games. The Flames, however, kicked it up a notch…whereas the night before they second half of the game fatigue set in, it was Edmonton’s extra 3 bodies that seemed to start to break down as the 2nd wore on. Mike Cammalleri started the comeback with a floated shot that many times wouldn’t be considered a scoring chance, but in this case gets through a couple sets of legs and finally, Jeff Deslauriers. The Flames grab spark from that goal finally heading in, and come on strong. Jamie Lundmark with a wrap around attempt denied. Jarome Iginla with a half empty net after a Deslauriers giveaway. A few minutes later, the Flames enter the Oilers zone easily and Cammalleri again gets the puck, cruises through the high slot, and finds the top shelf on Deslauriers to put the Flames ahead. To finish off a frantic period, 50 fantastic seconds of freewheeling hockey as close to the 1980’s as you’ll find….each team using stretch passes and great saves on both ends to have the crowd buzzing as the 2nd intermission, highlighted by McElhinney robbing Ales Kotalik twice from point blank range.
The third provided less action than the first, although the Flames fired another 18 shots on net, to the Oiler’s 8, the Oilers clearly wanting to make sure that they saved their best shots for the golf course this upcoming week, for a third straight year, put minimal effort in. Very little cause for the referees to impede the teams playing out the string, however one could pretty much say that the Flames PP hit rock bottom for the 0-44 swing its been on, when sure-handed Jarome Iginla dumps it off to Ethan Moreau for a 150 foot breakaway. McElhinney saves the captain. Seconds after the powerplay ends, a Cammalleri shot gets block and lands on Craig Conroy’s stick who finds the far corner. Iginla come out hard the rest of the period, a few shifts later narrowly missing some patented blasts. Wrapping up the scoring was Jamie Lundmark, a slap shot from the side boards that had a fair bit of odor to it. The post game celebration and mobbing of McElhinney, left no doubt as to who the victor was, and a provided a fairly obvious sense that there was relief to this team that this season and this stretch of games, was over. 4-1 Flames final.
Three Stars
- Curtis McElhinney: Kept the Flames in the game the first half of the game, made some outstanding reaction saves and was there when called on…something he hasn’t shown in his previous 19 starts for a full 60 minutes as he did tonight.
- Mike Cammalleri: Reached 39 goals on two shots that, if all of those went in over the year, he’d be close to 100 goals, but that total, a fear no Flame other than named Iginla has had that many in the last 13 years of the Flames franchise.
- Craig Conroy: Really, just an overall appreciation for his game. Solid in the faceoff circle, still skating rings around some players, still knows where to be and how to put the puck in the net. For a 37 year old, show now signs of slowing down…low and behold, the team leader for ’08-’09 in +/- at an impressive +20.
Big Save
In the flurry of chances at the end of the second period, the robbery of Kotalik and Tom Gilbert on odd man chances stand out as keeping the Flames rightfully ahead and sunk any last fight left in the playoff-less Oilers.
Big Hit
In this game of shinny, little physical action was to be found on the ice. The Flames marketing department, after years of failed attempts at supplemental noise creation devices as playoffs arrived, have found a big hit in the plastic “clappers” handed out before the game. For a game with little meaning, the addition of these devices had the effect of making a louder atmosphere which morphed into more and more genuine excitement through and exciting final 40 minutes. By the end, the crowd was roaring and on its feet. Honorable mention goes to a hit that that’s stayed at the top of the charts for the last 3 years. Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye, serenading the Oilers demise, was once again roaring through the upper levels of the Saddledome again This marks at least 5 straight seasons where the Flames have split, or beaten the Oilers in the season series.
The Goat
None at all. The outrageously undermanned Flames took it to the Oilers early the night before, and didn’t get rewarded in the first half of the contest. Tonight, the Flames hold on the first period and fall behind, only to roar back in the last half of the game with 4 straight markers.
Mr. Clutch
Curtis McElhinney. With the glut of goaltending on the farm, and the marathon like effort of Kiprusoff’s starts, his future was before, and still is, largely up in the air this summer. But a win like this is well deserved for the time warming the end of the bench. The Oilers didn’t give him a workout early, but the added bonus of his first win coinciding with a relieved team able to win the final regular season at home, it bodes well for his mindset going forward, whether it be in Calgary or points beyond.
Odds and Ends
46 wins this year is more than division winner Vancouver, and matches what this team had 3 years ago when winning the division, and only the second time in 19 years of reaching that total. For all the trials and tribulations, and for the little its worth in the big picture, for the owners and management and players of this franchise to be able to provide a quality hockey team that can accumulate such totals in this league is still a privilege, not a right.
0-44 Powerplay? Can it get worse? I doubt it. How much better will it get and how quick will that happen? Probably sooner than most will think. Ice times tonight were fairly tightly packed together, with John Negrin and Matt Pelech seeing a sizable bump over yesterday’s minutes. How much time will they see in the playoff is yet to be determined, but this short stint was a baptism by fire, and they look like they came through it better for the experience. For all the good and the bad this regular season, one of the best pools of talent assembled by Darryl Sutter, but that is all wiped clean, and the real season now begins and how this team, and individual players, are truly judged as to their overall worth and the success level of how this team will go down in Flames history….its time to get excited as to what that future may bring in the upcoming weeks and months ahead.
Next Up
A commercial airline flight to Chicago for the start of this year’s playoffs. When? Who knows..Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? One thing is for sure, the top secret dossier on injuries is likely to remain sealed up until game time. Playoff previews will be written here and all over the media, but without hesitation, this writer can say that this Flames team has proven that it can beat any team in the conference more often than it loses, and it has the intangibles in this roster over the lineup over past years, to get past that one thing that seemed to hold them up previous years, that being speed and secondary scoring. Injuries are going to be tough to deal with, the PP has to get on track, the youthful exuberance of the Blackhawks are going to have to contended with, and the stonewalling goaltending Nikolai Khabibhulin has exacted on the Flames for the past 5+ years will be an issue. No one said the playoffs were ever going to be easy, but this Flames team can, and lets hope will, rise to overcome the challenges they’ve both created, and had happen to them, and be the team that have impressed more often than not this regular season.
Lines (To Start):
Iginla – Bertuzzi – Jokinen
Cammalleri – Conroy – Moss
Lankgow – Lundmark – Nystrom
YouHave – ToBe – KiddingMe
Pelech – Vandermeer
Pardy – Aucoin
Leopold – Negrin
