A decent start to the
2002003 season had fans
thinking the painful
April drought was
finally to end, before a
debilitating November
literally doused the
season.
You won't hear it in
any Flame sound byte but
the club is well aware
they are now playing out
the string.
The Flames chewed up
a link in that 30 games
string on Tuesday night
by dropping a 3-2
contest to the now 8th
place Anaheim Mighty
Ducks.
The NHL frowns on
teams losing games on
purpose of course, but
that won't keep Calgary
fans from quietly hoping
for that dubious but
also prosperous prize of
drafting first overall
come June.
The fact is that most
players on any current
NHL roster won't
themselves be around to
enjoy the fruits of a
last place finish since
most prospects take
three or more years to
surface.
Add in pride, and
basically you get a team
that's very good at
losing hockey games, but
doing everything they
can to avoid repeating
prior transgressions.
Enter the injuries.
Concurrent injuries
to three of the club's
top six defenceman would
be enough to make most
devout hockey fans throw
themselves off the
nearest tall building.
The fact that the timing
of such coincides with
the all important
"high gear"
stretch drive, and you
can almost taste the
bitterness.
Unless of course it
helps your club in a perverse
way ... by making
winning next to
impossible.
It wasn't the
young'uns that caused
the early troubles in
this one however, as
Jordan Leopold, Steve
Montador, Mike Mottau
and Micki Dupont all
played reasonably well.
Instead it was the
veteran troika of Roman
Turek, Bob Boughner and
Toni Lydman who put the
Flames behind the eight
ball early.
With the puck
bouncing around the
Flame crease Toni Lydman
found it in his feet and
tried to flip it out.
The puck glanced off of
Bob Boughner to Roman
Turek who bobbled it
onto Stanislav Chistov's
stick who slid the puck
into the cage.
Less than a minute
later the Ducks doubled
the score when Oleg
Saprykin let the puck
drift off his stick to
Mike Leclerc who took
advantage of a flat
footed Leopold to fire
one by Turek.
Rob Niedermayer made
the score 2-1 when he
beat Sandis Ozolinsh
down the boards took the
puck to the net and beat
former Flame J.S.
Giguere with a high
shot.
The Flames had the
better of the chances in
the second period, but
failed to get one by
Giguere sending the game
to the third with the
2-1 first period score
in tact.
Niedermayer scored
again, a powerplay tip
from the slot, to make
the score 2-2, and
that's where the real
drama began to unfold.
Chris Drury appeared
to have saved a sure
goal by stopping the
puck on the goal line,
the puck went back up
the ice with the Flames
getting a golden
opportunity, an
opportunity that
resulted in a penalty to
the Ducks Ruslan Salei.
With Salei heading
off the ice the video
officials called down
and ruled that the Drury
save play was actually a
goal giving the Ducks
the game winner.
The Flames pressed
through the final 9
minutes of the period
but failed to tie it up.
Chris Drury had two
clear breaks himself but
fired wide on both
chances.
