|
Â
Drury-less
Flames Lose In D.C.
Flames,
Gilbert Sink Further into Abyss
November 27th, 2002
D'Arcy McGrath
 |
|
AP Photo |
| Oh for Two: Flames come up
empty in D.C. |
The most if only satisfying thing about
coming off a severe goal drought and a 7-2 pasting at the hands of the
Boston Bruins?
No matter what the outcome of your next
game, it has to be an improvement ... granted to find optimism after a
4-2 loss in Washington is really, really stretching it.
The Calgary Flames wasted an utter
offensive explosion by Rob Niedermayer in dropping their 8th game in
their last nine decisions.
A goal and an assist by Niedermayer in
one game is something that only comes a long every couple of years like
the Olympics or an El Nino weather system, an eclipse or a memorable
meteor shower.
Perhaps the Flames to a man were so
busy watching the historic event they lost sight of the actual aim of
the evening ... winning a hockey game.
The first period was scoreless, though
Roman Turek was mostly the hero in the frame, turning aside all 13
Washington shots and giving his squad a legitimate chance to win. The
previous night in Boston, both Turek and his battery mate Jamie McLennan
were somewhat suspect in their efforts under siege by the streaking
Bruins.
The second period, however, was a
different story.
The Capitals blitzed the Flames for
three goals on 12 additional shots staking themselves to a 3 - 1 lead
after 40 minutes.
The Caps opened the scoring on a
powerplay, despite the absence of their two top gunners, Jaromir Jagr
and Peter Bondra, on a point blast from special team specialist Sergei
Gonchar.
Five minutes later Gonchar doubled the
lead and essentially put things out of reach with an even strength goal.
Before the period was over Rob
Niedermayer and Glen Metropolit swapped markers to send the Flames to
the third down two.
Niedermayer's goal was a powerplay
marker.
Just four minutes into the third period
the Flames appeared to make it interesting when the seldom used Steve
Begin scored to bring the game to within one.
Any plans for a full comeback were put
on hold however when the Caps went back up two goals less than a minute
later, with ex-Flame Michael Nylander doing the honors.
The loss moves the Flames under .500 on
the road for the first time this season with four wins and five losses.
More importantly, the loss drops the
Flames six points out of a playoff spot, and puts the club five games
under .500 for the first time this season.Â
Since the club will likely need at
least 90 points to make the playoffs, the club will need 72 points in
their next 59 games - a pace that requires them to play 13 games over
the break even mark.
Next up the Flames travel to St. Louis
to take on the Blues.
|
