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Great
Trip Ends on Sour Note
Flames
Set New Goal Drought Record in Loss
November 11th, 2002
D'Arcy McGrath
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AP Photo |
| Pointless: Chris Drury and
the other Flame guns were kept quiet again on Remembrance Day. |
It's all a matter of perspective, and
heightened expectations.
Ask any fan, player or coach if they'd
be happy with a .500 road trip through the east before it began a week
ago today, chances are you'd notice some decisive nods.
How about said trip without a minute
played by the club's number one goaltender, Roman Turek?
How about two games without captain
Craig Conroy?
 Seven days later and it all boils down
to bitter disappointment.
After jumping out with two wins and an
over time loss in the three games in the New York area, the team had a
great opportunity to make some serious noise on the trek.
Instead they came up very flat on a
pair of weekend dates against Florida and Atlanta, with their anemic
offence being the Achilles Heel that grounded their ship.
Chris Clark, who scored the team's only
goal this afternoon was hoping that his ugly marker may turn things
around.
"Seemed like we had lots of
chances. We got behind the eight ball and couldn't fight back for some
reason.", Clark told the Fan 960.
"It will be nice to get home, back
to our families, I think things will turn around now that we scored that
one goal."
The Thrashers opened the scoring in the
first period when former first overall draft pick Patrik Stefan notched
his fifth of the season, beating Flame goaltender Jamie McLennan.
That lead held through two periods, and
into the third stanza ... a time that set a new record Flame record for
longest duration of play between goals. The new time record stands at
191:42, or the point where Chris Clark's right shin pad put the streak
to an end.
Frantisek Kaberle put a strangle hold
on the affair when he notched a goal just 3:38 in to third essentially
putting the Flames trip on ice.
Clark's goal brought the Flames close
setting up some near miss late game heroics.
With less than 15 seconds left in the
game, Flame rookie Jordan Leopold snuck in alone on goaltender Passe
Nurminen but was absolutely stoned on the chance.
The loss moves the Flames overall
record to an even 5-5-3-3 on the season, 2-2-0-1 on this five game road
trip.
The Flames once again drop out of a
playoff spot as they sit in ninth position with 16 points in 16 games,
even in points to the Blue Jackets, Red Wings and Canucks, all of which
have games in hand.
Next up for Calgary is the New York
Rangers at home in the Pengrowth Saddledome on Thursday night.
That game opens a five game homestand,
which features additional games against the Blues, Wings, Oilers and
Blackhawks - all conference rivals.
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