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Flames
End Home Horror Show
D'Arcy
McGrath
January
27th, 2002
It's a little late for silver linings, but with
the way the past two months of hockey have gone for the Calgary Flames,
you can't blame them for searching.
The Flames concluded a six game home stand with
a woeful one win, five loss record, a disappointing result in a very
critical point in their schedule.
With a daunting second half road schedule ahead
of them, essentially they wasted a chance to make some hay.
Against Vancouver on Saturday night, they once
again showed the ability to return to the more sound defensive scheme
they deployed earlier in the season, but were unable to score, and
dropped a 2 - 0 contest.
The Canucks opened the scoring early in the
first period when Brent Sopel found the puck on his stick on the point
and fired a screened shot past Roman Turek to put the visitors up a
goal.
The Flames stormed the Vancouver net for the
rest of the period, but were unable to beat Canuck starter Petr Skudra,
despite a 13-6 edge in shots on goal.
The second period featured the Flames best
chance to tie the game when a Scott Nichol shot in the slot caromed off
of both goal posts and somehow stayed out of the net. The play managed
to fool even the goal judge, who turned on the goal light, and Enmax who
fired their natural gas torch.
The third period featured some more chances, but
the Flames for the second straight game were unable to cash in.
Marc Savard looked to have tied it when he took
the puck off the boards, brought it out front and fired it at a yawning
Canuck cage only to have Skudra slide across and make a sensational
save.
With four minutes left the Canucks salted the
game away when Craig Conroy was fingered for a phantom high sticking
call, putting the visitors on the powerplay. Replays showed that the
errant stick was actually that of another Vancouver player, incensing
Conroy, the Flames and the crowd.
On the powerplay, Todd Bertuzzi took a clever
centering pass and fired a low shot from in tight past Turek to put the
game away.
The loss leaves the Flames in 11th spot in the
west with 50 points in 51 games. It's the first time this season that
the Flames have been under .500. They now trail the Canucks by five
points for the final playoff spot in the West.
The announced attendance was 17,068 on the
night.
Â
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Scoreboard
|
 |
Vancouver
Canucks |
2 |
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Calgary
Flames |
0 |
Box Score
FLAMES
LINES
| Saprykin |
Conroy |
Shantz |
| Lowry |
Savard |
Iginla |
| Hentunen |
Wilm |
Petrovicky |
| Allison |
Nichol |
Berube |
|
| Morris |
Regehr |
| Gauthier |
Boughner |
| Lydman |
Kravchuk |
OUR
THREE STARS
1
Petr Skudra -
Simply the
difference in a low
scoring
affair.Â
2
Brent Sopel -
Scored a goal in the
first period, which
held up as the game
winner.
3
Roman Turek -
Screened on the
first goal, but
solid after that
point to hold the
Flames within a
goal.
SAVE
OF THE GAME
A
sliding Petr Skudra
kept the game in
Vancouver's favour
when he slit feet
first, post to post
to stone Marc Savard
in the third
period.Â
HIT
OF THE GAME
Flame
defenceman Robyn
Regehr caught
Brendan Morrison
with his head
down in the
third period,
delivering a
solid open ice
hit.
NOTES
& STATS
The
Flames can look
directly at special
teams in analyzing
yet another close
loss. The Flames
came up empty on
five chances, while
the Canucks made one
of their four
chances count. ...
The teams spent
26:00 minutes in the
Canucks zone on the
night, compared to
only 21:15 in the
Calgary zone. ...
The Flames out shot
the Canucks by a 29
-21 margin. ... The
Flames out did their
visitors in the face
off circle, winning
a whopping 60% of
the draws. The
Flames didn't have a
center under 50%.
... The hit count
was also in the
Flames favour, with
a 23-21 edge to the
home side. The
Flames leader was
Robyn Regehr with 4
on the night. ...
The Canuck's Brent
Sopel blocked a game
high four shots.
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