Same Old Story

D'Arcy McGrath

February 26th, 2002

Initially, Jarome Iginla must have felt he brought a little bit of Calgary with him to the Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Four games into the Olympic tournament the Canadian squad was struggling to score goals, much like his usual team the Calgary Flames.

Unlike the Canadian squad the betting money isn't on Calgary in terms of breaking out of their scoring funk.

When Eric Lindros and Owen Nolan are replaced with Craig Berube and Jeff Shantz you just know Mr. Iginla may just have to play a larger role to get things done with his NHL club.

The Flames played a fairly solid game, that is after settling down from a first period siege by the Avalanche, but needed a late fluky goal by Marc Savard to force overtime and take a point out of Denver.

The point is a valuable one however, given the Western conference predicament the Flames find themselves in, and the fact that the opposition was the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

The game was tied through two periods on goals by Iginla's Salt Lake center, Joe Sakic, and Calgary teammate Scott Nichol.

The Avalanche had a wide margin of the play in the first period, out shooting the Flames by a 15 to 5 tally. Roman Turek's strong play kept the Flames in it.

A different team emerged in the second period, however, as the Flames then took the play to Colorado, with a 12-5 margin.

Early in the third period Sakic took advantage of an over committing Denis Gauthier to send Radim Vrbata in for the go ahead goal, seemingly sealing the Flames fate.

The game changed on a dime late in the second however, when Marc Savard used fate and quick hands to send the game to overtime.

Savard chasing Pascal Trepanier behind the net found the puck on his stick when Trepanier fired the puck off his goaltender, Patrick Roy, who was out to play the puck. Savard collected the loose puck and quickly wrapped it around the net and into the empty cage.

The overtime session featured a clinic by Iginla, who had three chances on his own in the Colorado zone, before Avalanche coach Bob Hartley finally called time out to calm his troops.

With just nine seconds left Marc Savard galloped in on a breakaway only to be foiled by Roy.

In the end the extra frame solved little, as the Northwest conference foes kept their season series tied through five games.

The Flames out shot the Avalanche 12 to 8 in the third to take the game edge by a count of 31 to 29.

The tie keeps the Flames one game under .500 and within five points of Dallas and possibly Vancouver who was trailing St. Louis through two periods. 

Scoreboard
	Colorado Avalanche	2
	Calgary Flames	2

Box Score

FLAMES LINES

OUR THREE STARS

1) Roman Turek - If not for Roman Turek this one might have been over before it started - solid first period to keep his team in it.

2) Marc Savard - The enigmatic pivot played one of his best games of the season, and scored the game tying goal late in the third.

3) Joe Sakic - Olympic hero gets a goal and an assist in his return to the NHL.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Not so much a save, but a push. Derek Morris pushed Alex Tanguay just as he was about to push the puck into the empty net with less than a minute left in the third period. Honorable mention to Patrick Roy who got the knob of his stick on Marc Savard when the Flame center broke in alone late in the overtime period.

NOTES & STATS

With 14 of their last 24 games on the road, points away from home are just huge for this team, including of course games against big teams like the Avalanche. ... Jarome Iginla kept his Olympic hot hand in directing six shots on the Avalanche goal, but came up empty on the score board. ... He was matched in shot output by his Olympic center Joe Sakic, who also had six shots. ... The Flames were all world in the face off circle winning a miraculous 65% of the draws on the night. Marc Savard was good for 76%, while winger Iginla managed wins on 87% of his attempts. ... Another very high hit count in this one, with the two teams combining for 76 hits, the Avalanche taking 41 for their own. Rob Blake led all players with seven, the Flames were led by Craig Conroy and Ron Petrovicky. ... The Flames scratched Robyn Regehr in favour of Petr Buzek. ... Derek Morris returned to his high ice time norm, logging 29:18 of ice on the night. Jarome Iginla led all forwards with 26:51. Rob Blake was tops in the game with 33:12, so much for resting the Olympic heroes. Blake had to take extra ice when Adam Foote went down with a shot to the throat.