Calgary Flames 4 Ottawa Senators 4

Flames Come From Behind in Ottawa

Rick Charlton

November 22th, 2001

There's no stopping the Jarome Iginla freight train.

Iginla deflected a Dean McAmmond shot past Senator netminder Patrick Lalime at 9:22 of the third period to pull the Flames back from a two goal deficit into a 4-4 tie last night in Ottawa.

It was Iginla's league best 19th goal of the season and, combined with two earlier assists, padded the Flame superstar's total atop the NHL scoring race to 36, well ahead of the 28 compiled by runner-up Brendan Shanahan of Detroit.

The tie also extended Calgary's unbeaten streak to 10 games and, coincidentally, left Ottawa undefeated in 11.

The Flames are now 13-2-4-2 on the season and netminder Roman Turek, with the two month mark of the season now fast approaching, remains undefeated in regulation time.

Calgary's 32 points brought them into a tie for second overall with Edmonton in the NHL's overall standings with the Oilers playing LA later in the evening. Flames have three games in hand on the Oilers. Ottawa is now 12-6-3 on the year, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference.

But Calgary's second high-scoring tie in a row couldn't have been more different than the sloppily played 5-5 draw Tuesday night against LA.

With both the Senators and Flames soaring in the standings this game delivered on its promise, with emotion, physical play and offensive brilliance on both sides. Typically in a high-scoring contest, an observor wouldn't be surprised by a lot of mistakes on the defensive side of the puck. But this particular contest was marked by many terrific offensive forays and both sides were deserving of a point.

Calgary opened scoring on a power play, one of two man advantage goals on the night, when Toni Lydman and Iginla performed yeoman work on the blueline to keep the puck onside, eventually slipping it to Derek Morris who immediately whipped a pass to an open Craig Conroy. The Flames centre then roofed a shot over a helpless Lalime.

Senators didn't take long to tie, with Martin Havlat coming through the slot and whipping a wrister on Turek. The Flames goalie managed to get a piece of the puck but it trickled through him and over the line for a 1-1 game.

Calgary took the lead on a power play at 2:58 of the second when Rob Niedermayer finally scored his first of the season. Marc Savard gave him a great pass from the blueline and the snakebitten Flame stepped in from the bottom of the faceoff dot to roof the puck short side over Lalime's shoulder.

Chris Phillips tied the game at 8:56 when he banked a shot off the skate of an unlucky Jamie Allison.

It looked like the Flames were toast by 5:46 of the third as the Senators rocketed to a 4-2 lead on goals by Daniel Alfredsson and Phillips on the power play. Alfredsson picked up a loose puck and ripped a beautiful wrister from 30 feet in the slot while Phillips hammered a screened point shot beyond Turek.

A lesser opponent might have wilted but the Flames immediately brought the score to 4-3 when Conroy added his second of the night, fishing a loose puck out of a goal mouth scramble and backhanding a shot past Lalime at 6:25.

Iginla then planted himself in front of Lalime and was the beneficiary of a deflection on a McAmmond point blank shot at 9:22.

From that moment on it was a continual exchange of chances from two strong teams, with both goaltenders desperately trying to hang on.

This game also served to solve the Flames riddle at centre ice with Conroy continuing his terrific play with Iginla awhile Savard centered a new line with Niedermayer on left wing. The new configuration seemed to give the Flames offensive life against one of the better defensive teams in the NHL.

But Savard finished at a dismal minus three on the night and Niedermayer was minus two. Jamie Allison was also a minus two.

Calgary outshot the Senators 31-29 on the night and were two for six on the power play. The Senators had one goal on four extra man chances.

The game drew a crowd of 16,839.

But Savard finished at a dismal minus three on the night and Niedermayer was minus two. Jamie Allison was also a minus two.

Box Score

OUR THREE STARS

1) JAROME IGINLA - Closing in on a pace of two points a game. That hasn't happened in the NHL in a long time

2) DANIEL ALFREDSSON - Dangerous all night

3) CRAIG CONROY - Center of the best line in the NHL right now comes through by creating offensive opportunities all night.

HIT OF THE GAME

Although physically intense, there weren't any particularly bone rattling checks in this game but we'll give this to Marc Savard, 5'10" and Zdeno Chara 6' 9", in the first period. Although Savard initiated the contact he basically bounced off the gigantic and non-plussed Chara and probably received the worst of it.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Any number of saves throughout might have qualified but with the score tied 4-4 and time winding down in the third, Roman Turek stopped two point blank shots, the last from Radek Bonk, to keep the game even.

NOTES & STATS

Senators entered the game with only a five percent home ice power-play. . . . . . Derek Morris led the Flames as usual with Chris Pronger like ice time, 29:12 on the night. His competitor for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team, Wade Redden, led the Senators with a nearly identical 29:37. . . . . . Hits on the night were 39-35 in favour of the Senators with Denis Gauthier leading the Flames with six and Chris Clark with five. Chara had seven for Ottawa. . . . . . .Radek Bonk dominated the faceoff circle with a 72% win percentage but his fine work was undone by an over-matched Mike Fisher, only 14% on the night. Savard, Clarke Wilm and Savard were an efficient 58%, 57% and 52% respectively on faceoffs. . . . . . Iginla had an incredible eight shots on the night. 

 

 

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