At this point in time you have to wonder if it’s more worthwhile for the Flames to win games or lose them. Coming off of two straight losses, they faced yet another one of the Western Conference’s best teams in the Detroit Red Wings, and with the Wings taking all of the games so far this season, the even money was on the Red Wings to win the game. But, I bet many of you didn’t think it was going to go down this way…
On The Line
Not a damn thing other than either stringing the fans along or heading towards a top five draft pick.
The Flow
Surprisingly this game was really in the Flames favour, especially to start. After a little bit of back and forth, you started to notice that the Flames were the ones who were in possession of the puck for the most part. Indeed it was Calgary who started off the scoring thanks to some hard work from Curtis Glencross. Driving to the net with Matt Stajan, Glencross used some Tim Jackman-esque net presence and determination to will the puck past Jimmy Howard. Detroit followed things up a little while later when Darren Helm snuck a shot in between Miikka Kiprusoff’s pad and the post, that Kiprusoff deflected into the net with his left pad. But before the close of the frame, Calgary took the lead one more time, this time combining the efforts of Curtis Glencross and Jarome Iginla where Iginla took the puck around the back of the net and slipped one in off of Howards pad.
The second period started off with a bang just moments in when Detroit evened things up on the first goal of the season for Brian Rafalski that deflected off of Mark Giordano, but Kiprusoff should have had a better shot at stopping. Calgary responded very quickly when Glencross picked up his second goal of the game, and third point out waiting Jimmy Howard to put the Flames back up on top. Then on the power-play, Anton Babchuk put the Flames up by two on a rocket from the point that seemed to go in off of Howards pad into the top corner of the net. And while Calgary led the tempo of the game and had a fantastic effort to keep the Wings off the board on a five on three, then had some chances to score short handed, Detroit ended up with a late power-play goal from Patrick Eaves.
Enter the third period and you figured that if the Flames were able to weather the storm of the first five minutes against the Wings, that things were looking good. Indeed things were looking that way, until Olli Jokinen rang a point blank shot off of the post and on the next shift Brian Rafalski scored yet another terrible goal on Kiprusoff to tie things up. That gave the Red Wings a tonne of life, and the team that we expected to show up against the Flames came to play. But after Calgary killed off another two man advantage, they started to get a few chances. Heading into overtime momentum has swung into Calgary’s favour.
On overtime it was really Calgary who dominated the play of the game, but a terrible mistake by the players on the ice not to let Detroit touch the puck to get a full two minute 4-3 advantage led us to the shootout. In the shootout Todd Bertuzzi would be the only player to score, lazily making his way to the net and roofing a puck over the glove of Kiprusoff.
Three Stars
1. Jimmy Howard: He wasn’t great early, but he was stunning late and kept his team in it to win in the shootout.
2. Curits Glencross: A three point effort for the winger stuck in a pretty epic scoring slump, he paced the Flames to the lead on two occasions and was playing the type of game the Flames needed to win.
3. Darren Helm: A goal and an assist, but a real nuisance to the Flames all game long.
Big Save
Probably the biggest save of the game came in overtime, when Kimmy Howard slid across to get his blocker on a one time shot from Jarome Iginla that looked destined to end the contest.
Big Hit
Tom Kostopolus sent Brad Stuart to the dressing room with an early end to his evening getting Stuart full on the in head with a borderline (probably suspend-able) hit in the third period. Stuart was spitting blood afterwards
The Goat
To me, this one lies at the feet of Miikka Kiprusoff. Many a season he’s been the saviour of the Flames, but this time around he’s not making the saves he needs to make at the times he needs to. The goals from Rafalski were just terrible, and Helm’s wasn’t much better. He snaked a great effort from his team and gave life to the Wings.
Mr. Clutch
It’s hard not to go with Howard on this one. When the Flames finally recovered from the loss of the 4-2 lead, Howard stood on his head on a number of occasions to stymie the Flames attempt to get the lead again.
Odds and Ends
Just when you’re about to write the Flames off for the season, they come along and pull out one of these types of games and you’re left wondering where this kind of effort was all season long? It really seemed to be noticeable with the start of play from guys like David Moss, who was really good in the first period. Perhaps it was poor effort to start for the Wings, but it was like a reversal of what you normally see between these two teams; with the Flames holding court with the puck for two thirds. The third period was classic Red Wings hockey though, and Calgary tried desperately to get control of the puck, but really looked like the near dead last Western team they are.
Odd to see Tom Kostopolus spending a fair amount of time with Iginla and Jokinen. It seemed like Alex Tanguay only really got time on the power play in the last couple of periods, possibly due to play, or possibly due to taking a pretty hefty beating from pucks to the ankles and face.
Next Up
Calgary has a few days off before heading out on the road to take on the Hurricanes on Tuesday night. Game time is 5:00 PM MT on Sportsnet West.
Lines:
Tanguay – Jokinen – Iginla
Glencross – Stajan – Hagman
Moss – Morrison – Bourque
Jackman – Backlund – Kostopoulos
Regehr – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Sarich
Pardy – Babchuk
Kiprusoff
