Calgary Flames 3 Los Angeles Kings 2

Flames Love L.A.

Rick Charlton

November8th, 2001

Wherever the Flames are going, Jarome Iginla is the guy who's taking them there in a big hurry.

While it was Roman Turek who may have started this oh so wonderful season with his brilliant play early, it's been all Iginla lately.

Dragging his teammates by the hair behind him, and anchored by late game heroics from Turek, it was Iginla yet again powering the Flames with two goals in a 3-2 Calgary victory last night in front in 14,459 disappointed Kings fans at the Staples Center in LA.

The two goals, his 12th and 13th of the season, allowed Iginla to extend his point streak to 10 games and lengthened his league leading point total to 27, well ahead of the 21 put up by second place Jeff O'Neill of Carolina.

The win, giving the Flames three of four points on their short California road trip, pushed Calgary to a dizzying 11-2-1-2 on the season, good for 25 points.

Calgary is now 4-2-1 on the road to go with a glittering 7-0-0-2 mark at home. The win launched the Flames over the New York Islanders, losers to the Rangers last night, into second place in the NHL's overall standings. Calgary is second in the west behind idle Detroit and three points ahead of Edmonton in the Northwest Division.

In a strange statistical quirk, the Kings have lost nine games this year, all by one goal and all by a score of 3-2.

LA opened the scoring at 15:17 of the first when Greg Johnson drilled a one-timer off a Lubomir Visnovsky pass straight thru a startled Turek.

Iginla tied the game when a clearing attempt by the Kings took a crazy hop into the slot and the Flames star wheeled and fired a slapper of the far iron behind LA starter Felix Potvin at 18:30.

Calgary went ahead at 9:34 of the second when Iginla bulled his way around an over-matched Jere Karalahti, driving to the net and wristing a shot past Potvin.

Only 23 seconds later Denis Gauthier found himself with room to walk in from the blue line in the slot and wristed a bullet past a screened Potvin.

With Toni Lydman in the penalty box, LA brought themselves back to within one with a power play goal by Randy Robitaille at 19:12.

LA outshot Calgary 28-21. The Flames were 0-6 on the power play while the Kings were 1-5.

The win looked to be a costly one for the Flames when Derek Morris twisted left when he should have gone right and ended up wrenching his lower back. The extent of the injury was unknown.

Box Score


OUR THREE STARS

1. JAROME IGINLA - He's the NHL's leading scorer by a long shot and provided the Flames with energy all night. 

2. ROMAN TUREK - Interchangeable with Iginla this season - Iginla gave the Flames the lead and Turek held it. 

3) DENIS GAUTHIER - his usual vicious self and pops the water bottle just under the bar from 30 feet for the winning goal. Don't forget the five blocked shots.


SAVE OF THE GAME

Pick one of three. With the game tied 1-1 in the second, Adam Deadmarsh raced in alone on Turek but the Calgary netminder managed to hold the fort with a pad save. In the third, with the score 3-2 Calgary, Deadmarsh was once again denied by Turek, this time on a goal mouth scramble with the Flames goaltender slapped his paddle down to take away a sure goal. On a late game LA powerplay, Turek stoned Deadmarsh again on a close-in shot.


HIT OF THE GAME

Ronald Petrovicky usually occupies this spot but was on the receiving end of a thundering hit from Kings Phillipe Boucher beside the LA net in the first period.


NOTES & STATS

Dallas Eakins drew into the game with the wrist injury to Robyn Regehr. The latter was cut on the wrist blocking a shot the night before in Anaheim. Regehr actually wears the largest gloves in the hockey world and believes he would have had a broken wrist if he had gone with the shorter version favoured by many NHL'ers. . . . . Coach Greg Gilbert elected to shake up his lineup a bit, substituting Jukka Hentunen in for the first time in four games and Jeff Cowan in for only the second game in the last eight . . . . . Yet there was Hentunen in the final minute of the game, digging the puck from the front of the Flames net and clearing the zone, going from the doghouse to the penthouse in the eyes of coach Gilbert . . . . . . With Morris down and out, Toni Lydman stepped up with 27:13 in ice time followed by Bob Boughner at 26:24 to lead the Flames. Phillipe Boucher led the Kings at 25:58 . . . . Craig Conroy, who had an assist in the game, slaughtered the Kings in the faceoff circle with a 65% winning percentage which was a good thing as his backup Rob Niedermayer was only 25%. Clark Wilm was 55% successful. On the Kings side, Bryan Smolinski led the Kings at 52%. . . . . .Jaroslav Modry had four blocked shots for the Kings . . . .


 

 

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