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Flames
Goal-less Again
Drop
3-0 Contest to Panthers
November 9th, 2002
D'Arcy McGrath
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AP Photo |
| Huge Hurme: Iginla and the
Flames found Hurme to be unbeatable on Saturday night. |
Uh Oh for two.
For the second straight road game, the
Calgary Flames failed to hit the score sheet and as a result fell to
defeat.
This time there were no overtime loss consolation
points, just a 3-0 shut out loss to the suddenly streaking Florida
Panthers.
The Flames managed to out-shoot the
Panthers by a count of 28 to 24, but couldn't solve goaltender Jani
Hurme, filling in for the injured Roberto Luongo, out with a stiff back.
Jarome Iginla fired six of the 28 shots
towards the Florida goal, including a third period chance that appeared
to be heading into an empty net only to find away to stay out.
At least, in those one, he got some
pucks to the net.
Through the four games on this Eastern
road swing, Iginla has but one assist and no goals. Two of the four
games he has failed to even garner an assist.
The Panthers picked up the only goal
they'd need on this night when Kristian Huselius picked up a juicy
powerplay rebound and fired it home to put the Panthers up by a score of
1-0.
Then with six minutes left in the
period and captain Craig Conroy off for boarding, former Flame Val Bure
basically salted things away with his 5th of the season, but third in
his last four games. On the play, Bure took the puck in the slot and
fired it through a Robyn Regehr's legs and past a screened Jamie
McLennan.
"I think he had a hard time
because of the screen," said Bure, "I tried to fire it between
the defender's legs. I don't think he had a good look at it."
"I thought we played pretty
well," McLennan said. "We battled. They got two power-play
goals. What do you do? It's our fifth game this week in five different
cities. It could have gone either way with a bounce here and a bounce
there. It's not like they blew us out."
A scoreless third period did little to
bring the Flames back into the game, leaving Florida an empty net goal
by upstart Olli Jokinen to put the cap on the evening.
"They're a hard working hockey
club," Flames coach Greg Gilbert said. "We weren't willing to
pay the price in the tough areas, and do the dirty work to be
successful. Especially with shots in front of the net. We had nobody
there for the rebound to get the ugly goals."
The Flames will now conclude their road
trip with a matinee on Monday afternoon in Atlanta. A win over the Dany
Heatley, Illya Kovalchuk led Thrashers will give the Flames seven points
(three wins, a loss and an overtime tie), making it a very successful
trip. A loss will still leave the team .500 on the trip (2-2-0-1), but
will leave a very nasty taste in the player's mouths after such a good
start.
"You know, it wasn't a bad road
game," said Iginla, "I'd say the chances were pretty close. It
wasn't a bad game, for sure. But it's not good enough -- we didn't win.
We're still playing well. Now if we go and win in Atlanta, it's a very
good road trip."
Unfortunately playing well doesn't
translate to a lot of points in the ultra competitive Western Conference
- things just continue to grow more tight by the evening.
Last night, wins by the Oilers,
Canucks, Blue Jackets and Hawks put some serious upward pressure on the
standings. The Flames essentially tumbled from 5th place to a four way
tie for 6th place with Vancouver, Columbus and Detroit.
You simply can't afford to take a night
off.
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