Yotes Howl on Iggy's Party

D'Arcy McGrath

April 9th, 2002

The game featured Calgary's first look at a home side 50 goal scorer since Gary Roberts turned the trick almost nine years ago.

A laid back night for the Calgary Flames to celebrate the league's top scorer, and maybe play the role of spoiler, damaging the Coyotes playoff chances.

The Coyotes, however, were all business in turning back the home side by a score of 4-2 in front of 15,229 Saddledome patrons.

The loss seals the Flames into their seventh straight losing season, as they have only two games left, with their best possible finish being 81 points, seven points up from last year's total.

The Coyotes made it clear which team was fighting for it's life and which was playing out the string, by dominating the first 40 minutes of the hockey game.

By the end of the first period the seemingly playoff bound Coyotes had secured a comfortable lead on the strength of goals by Daniel Briere and Shane Doane, despite coming up empty on a penalty shot when Michael Handzus was foiled by Roman Turek.

The second period was a scoreless affair despite total domination by the Coyotes, as Roman Turek turned aside 16 shots to given his side a shot going in to the third period. 

The Flames only managed five shots in on Sean Burke.

The third period featured a Flame squad with renewed enthusiasm as the home side carried the play to the visitors.

They were rewarded when Derek Morris scored a powerplay goal to make the score 2-1 less than four minutes in.

The Flames continued to press until Dean McAmmond notched the score at two with his 21st of the season. The goal was McAmmond's 50th point of the campaign tying his career best mark set in Edmonton in 1998. He has two games to attempt to better the mark, including a game in Edmonton coincidentally enough on Friday night.

Poetic justice reigned supreme in this one however as the Coyotes leapt back into the lead just thirty seconds later when former Canadien Brian Savage scored to make the score 3-2. 

Shane Doan added his second of the evening with less than a minute left to salt things away.

 

Scoreboard
	Phoenix Coyotes	4
	Calgary Flames	2

Box Score

FLAMES LINES

OUR THREE STARS

1 Shane Doan - Two key goals to pace the Coyotes 

2 Daniel Briere - Player once labeled as too small to compete in the NHL notched his 32nd of the season, and adds an assist. 

3 Roman Turek - The difference between a close game and a Coyote run away.

SAVE OF THE GAME

The penalty shot of course! Roman Turek stones Michael Handzus on a first period penalty shot to keep things interesting.

NOTES & STATS

With a Vancouver Canuck victory in Colorado, a Coyote win in Calgary and a St. Louis victory in Nashville; the playoff hopes of the Dallas Stars took a decided turn for the worst. Last night's loss in L.A. may have nuked any hopes of the budget rich Stars getting into the playoffs. The Stars now sit four points back of the Canucks with three games to play. A win by Vancouver in either of their final two games puts them in ... Meanwhile up north thing in Edmonton don't look as rosy as they once did. The Oilers trail the Canucks by two points, but don't have any of the tie breakers meaning they'll have to out pace Vancouver by three points to get in. Edmonton has three games left to Vancouver's two, both teams play Calgary this weekend. ... Jarome Iginla failed to add to his 51 goal total but did pick up an assist to move his point total to 95 points. He'll need five points in his final two games to reach the elusive 100 mark. ... The Flames out hit the Coyotes by a 30-25 margin, led by Scott Nichol and Bob Boughner with five apiece.