He continues to
dominate.
Jarome Iginla, with
his 34th goal of the
year, the 19th time the
Flames superstar has
scored in the last 20
games, led his Flames to
an impressive 4-1 road
win at the Staples
Centre in LA last night.
Iginla added an
assist as well as a late
game fight with Kings
Steve Avery.
Dave Lowry, with a
goal and an assist, and
Craig Conroy, with three
assists, were also key
elements as Calgary's
top line slaughtered
their King counterparts,
dominating throughout.
"It started
right away, the first
four or five minutes of
the game, Dave scored
right away on a rebound
of mine," said
Conroy after the game,
citing the effort of the
entire team as a major
factor in the win.
"It was just a good
all around night for our
team."
The victory brought
the Flames into a tie
with San Jose in the
NHL's Western Conference
on the very day that
Dean Lombardi, the
Sharks GM, was
terminated.
If you expected
ex-Sharks coach Darryl
Sutter, now mentor of
the Flames, to be
gloating that his
ex-boss had taken the
fall you would have to
think again - Sutter
called Lombardi earlier
in the day with
condolences.
Flames are now
25-33-11-4 with 65
points on the season,
still technically in
14th place in the West
but now within four
points of three teams
tied with 69 points.
Calgary's recent hot
streak has served to
eliminate them from the
race for the bottom of
the NHL standings and
the first pick overall
in the NHL's June draft.
With only 10 games
remaining, the Flames
are five or more points
ahead of five other
teams in the standings
and two ahead of 15th
place Columbus in the
West.
Calgary is now .500
under Darryl Sutter, no
doubt management
believing that to be a
selling point as the
season winds down and
the press to sell
tickets for next year
begins to heat up.
Lowry opened scoring
at 7:59 of the first,
scooping up a Conroy
rebound and bouncing a
shot off the post and
behind Kings rookie
sensation Christobal
Huet.
LA tied the game late
in the period when
Jaroslav Modry retrieved
a loose puck in front of
Turek and drilled a
point blank shot through
Flames starter Roman
Turek at 16:49.
|
2003
Draft Watch |
|
If
the draft was held
today ... |
|
Pick
|
Team
|
Player*
|
| 1 |
Buffalo |
M.-A.
Fleury |
| 2 |
Atlanta |
Milan
Michalek |
| 3 |
Carolina |
Nikolai
Zherdev |
| 4 |
Pittsburgh |
Nathan
Horton |
| 5 |
Columbus |
Braydon
Coburn |
| 6 |
Calgary |
Eric
Staal |
| 7 |
San
Jose |
Andrei
Kastsitsyn |
| *ranking:
Red
Line 2/26/03 |
|
The game was a
tightly fought affair
from there, both teams
with their chances and
both Huet and Turek
holding their teams
close, the only
interruption being
Iginla skillfully
hooking a flying rebound
at knee level high into
the net at 11:20 of the
second.
The game was tilting
in the balance until
15:26 of the third when
Saint John call-up Blair
Betts, taking the place
of the injured Chris
Drury, hustled through
the LA defence to an
open puck and passed to
a wide open Oleg
Saprykin, the latter
finding the net behind a
startled Huet.
It was left to Jordan
Leopold to nimbly step
past a shot-blocking LA
defenceman and then
drill a high drive past
a screened Huet at 18:20
of the final period.
Turek wasn't a factor
in this game, his
detractors believing
that to be a good thing,
the Flames netminder
turning in a workmanlike
effort with 26
uneventful saves.
Huet faced 32 Flames
shots.
Calgary was one for
four on the power play
and LA was zero for
four.
Next up is Washington
on Thursday night as the
Flames begin a five game
homestand.
