Knocking off the two of the top three teams in the past handful of days and welcoming the red hot as of late Nashville Predators, hopes were high in Calgary of another win and another step closer to respectability. Would the Flames be able to build off of character wins against Dallas and Vancouver on the weekend or would they be silenced by the hard work of the Predators?
On The Line
It’s been a while since this section has actually had some real meaning, but with the tight spread of points between the 6th and 14th place teams, a Flames win, combined with a Kings and Blues loss would see the Flames jump from 14th to 11th in the conference.
The Flow
Calgary got onto the right path with some hard work in the Nashville zone drawing a couple of penalties to get the territorial edge to start the first, and after Pekke Rinne stymied the Flames on a couple of good chances it was Curtis Glencross arcing a shot off of Predators captain Shea Weber over the head of Renne and into the net to put the home side up by one.
Calgary stepped things up in the second, holding court in the opposition end for most of the period, but the Predators were the ones who scored first when Colin Wilson squeaked a shot through Miikka Kiprusoff that David Legwand poked in for good measure. It looked like the tables were turning when Cory Sarich was in the box until the Predators took a high sticking penalty (perhaps makeup for a dubious missed trip of Curtis Glencross). Gaining possession after the ensuing faceoff in the Predators zone, the Flames took full advantage of the powerplay after Alex Tanguay rifled a shot on net, Matt Stajan picked up the huge rebound and slid it over to Iginla with a gaping cage to put the Flames back up on top.
The third period saw the Flames sit back a bit, or at least the Predators turn on the pressure as they tried to tie things up. It wasn’t until the energy line of Kostopolus – Backlund – Jackman generated another powerplay after the team spent most of the period hemmed in their own zone that the Flames salted things away courtesy some slick passing between Mark Giordano, Alex Tanguay with Brendan Morrison the finisher.
Three Stars
1. Alex Tanguay: Two huge assists, the winger is playing with more confidence and is getting rewarded for more work ethic.
2. Miikka Kiprusoff: While awful of late, he’s had a resurgence in the past two games, and was a huge difference maker in the game tonight.
3. Matt Stajan: Also picking up two assists, and actually took a hit without falling down. Now that’s progress!
Big Save
Not a lot of huge saves in the game, just solid goaltending at both ends. Big credit to Shea Weber who blocked a one timer from Iginla that could have put things away in the second period much earlier.
Big Hit
Also not much of a hitting affair, but Mark Giordano caught the better part of Joel Ward in the Flames zone in the first period after taking a couple of bad penalties to get back into the good books.
The Goat
Hate to say it, but Mark Giordano is really fighting things right now. It looks like he’s trying to do too much; in any case, something isn’t quite right with Gio of late. He needs to settle down and get back to being second goaltender!
Mr. Clutch
Tim Jackman had one shift in the first half of the third period. The Flames were getting killed in their own zone during that time. He comes out for his next shift and the line immediately gets into the Predators zone and picks up a power-play. Flames score. The lesson learned here is, play Jackman.
Odds and Ends
It turns out that the Blues lost and the Kings won, so the Flames find themselves sitting in 12th place, with a playoff spot in sights. This breakdown of games to try and get themselves into the playoffs is similar to the strategy that Jim Playfair introduced to the team in 2004, though Sutter has broken things into three game sets, needing 4 points out of every two games. Things seem to be working with the team taking down 3 of the top 4 in the west in 4 nights. Big steps for this team, but there’s a long way to go. Calgary has played at least two more games than pretty much every other team in the 6-14 log jam, so they aren’t out of the woods yet. The next game against the Blues will be a pretty big matchup for Calgary’s fate.
Next Up
The Flames take on the Blues on Wednesday night at 8PM MT. Catch the action on Sportsnet West.
Lines:
Tanguay – Morrison – Iginla
Glencross – Jokinen – Bourque
Moss – Stajan – Hagman
Jackman – Backlund – Kostopoulos
Regehr – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Sarich
Babchuk – Pardy
Kiprusoff
