No Iginla, no chance.
Calgary Flames fell
hard to a grinding San
Jose Sharks last night,
losing 5-2 as their uber-scorer
Iginla was limited to a
single assist on seven
shots after ringing up
four goals the night
before in Phoenix.
The Sharks plowed up
a rather methodical if
not clinical 4-0 lead
through two and a half
periods of a true
bore-fest before the
Flames Dave Lowry
managed to break the
shutout bid of San Jose
starter Evegeni Nabakov
with a late third period
marker.
Scott Nichol also
scored late for the
Flames while Teemu
Selanne led the Sharks
with two goals and Matt
Bradley, Owen Nolan and
Vincent Damphousse
contributed singles.
The loss was
particularly hard given
it marked the return to
San Jose of fired Sharks
benchboss Darryl Sutter,
now behind the bench for
Calgary.
Calgary mercifully
ends a long stretch of
nine of ten games on the
road where they managed
a record of only
2-5-2-1.
Flames are 19-31-10-4
on the year with 52
points, now 15 points in
arrears of the eighth
and final playoff spot
in the NHL's Western
Conference if you're
still keeping track of
that kind of thing.
The real race, as any
Flames fan knows,
involves movement in the
opposite direction, the
disgraceful dive to the
bottom of the standings,
Calgary's season long
swoon halted only
briefly by their 4-2 win
over Phoenix on Sunday
night.
Flames competition in
infamy, the Buffalo
Sabres, crept within
three points of the
Flames last night, tying
Atlanta in doing so,
with a 2-2 draw in
Florida.
|
2003
Draft Watch |
|
If
the draft was held
today ... |
|
Pick
|
Team
|
Player*
|
| 1 |
Buffalo |
Nikolai
Zherdev |
| 2 |
Atlanta |
Marc
Andre Fleury |
| 3 |
Carolina |
Eric
Stall |
| 4 |
Calgary |
Nathan
Horton |
| 5 |
Columbus |
Milan
Michalek |
| *ranking:
McKeen's
2/13/03 |
|
The good news for
those praying for the
worst result is that the
Sabres have three games
in hand on the Flames
while the Thrashers have
four.
Columbus, tied with
Calgary in points but
ahead of the Flames in
wins, was idle on the
night. The Blue Jackets
also have three games in
hand on Calgary.
With numbers like
that, the Flames look
good to fall into the
basement, last overall
in a 30 team league and
a prime candidate to
walk off with the number
one pick in next
summer's NHL entry
draft.
Should fans jump up
and down with joy or
simply jump off the
nearest bridge?
Sharks were two for
five on the powerplay,
the second straight game
the Flames have
surrendered two goals
while shorthanded.
Calgary failed to score
on its only man
advantage chance.
Flames outshot the
Sharks on the night
34-30 but were
handicapped by Bradley's
early goal, an immensely
soft flutterball from
the sideboards that
Turek plainly whiffed at
4:09 of the first
period.
Turek was actually
solid from thereon,
having little chance on
the other Shark markers
but by then the route
was on.
For San Jose, it was
their second straight
win after head coach Ron
Wilson had vocally
accused his charges of
being heartless and not
a little gutless.
But too little too
late as well for the
hapless Sharks, a team
immensely underachieving
and 10 points out of a
playoff spot in spite of
the win.
These two teams
collide again on
Saturday night, this
time at the Saddledome.
Get
Your
Calgarypuck
Gear!
Â
