Before the season the
game marked
"Carolina at
Calgary" wouldn't
be circled in a schedule
as an all-important
contest for the Calgary
Flames.
Out of division, out
of confernce, out of
mind are more expected
notions when the joint
topic of Calgary and
Carolina broach the
hockey topic list.
But on this night a
win for the home side
was paramount, a
requested sign to prove
that this chapter of the
Flames may be different
than the previous seven
chapters - that this
team might be for real.
The Flames mounted a
new potential positive
streak and avoided
losing two in a row when
the set back the
Hurricanes by a shut out
score of 1-0 on Thursday
night.
|
| Green |
Yelle |
Iginla |
| Gelinas |
McAmmond |
Donovan |
| Saprykin |
Lombardi |
Clark |
| Oliwa |
Morgan |
Kobasew |
| Regehr |
Leopold |
| Gauthier |
Warrener |
| Montador |
Ference |
|
A
game mired by the
possible injury to yet
another Flames center,
Stephane Yelle, the club
did what the club needed
to do in order to win.
The
first two periods
featured an onslaught of
crease crashing Calgary
forwards inexplicably
finding a way not to
cash in on golden
opportunity after golden
opportunity.
A
goal mouth scramble
here, a clanging goal
post there had the game
knotted at zeros through
two period despite Flame
period by period shot
advantages of 10-4 and
13-6 for an after forty
mark of 23-10 for the
homeside.
This
month's featured hero
stepped up to the plate
once again in the third
period when Shean
Donovan scored his 12th
goal of the season to
put the Flames up a
goal.
Robyn
Regehr fired a shot from
the point that created a
wild rebound off of
Carolina keeper Kevin
Weekes. The puck slid
out in front of the net
to a Hurricane
defenceman that was beat
to the puck by a diving
Donovan to tip the puck
in.
For
Donovan the goal put him
one shy of his career
best of 13 with 55 games
left to play on the
schedule.
The
Flames, dominating at
the point of the Donovan
goal to the point of a
30-11 shot advantage,
then proceeded to sit on
their marginal lead, and
hang on for dear life
for the rest of the
game.
The
home side iced the puck
at least a half dozen
times and lost more than
their share of faceoffs
with the team's top four
pivots all in sick by
for one ailment or the
other.
Enter
Miikka Kiprusoff.
The
seldom used stopper
through 50 minutes was
then called upon to save
the game, and save the
game he did in turning
aside 12 Carolina shots
in the games final 12
minutes.
The
shut out was the fourth
in Kiprusoff's career
and his first as a
Flame.
The
Flames move back to five
games above .500 and confirmed
their 6th place standing
by moving three points
up on the Nashville
Predators.
Next
up for Calgary, Colorado
on Saturday
night. Â
