Calgary 4 – Vancouver 3 (SO)
The Flames have a knack of losing to crappy teams and beating the good ones. Think of it this way. At this point Calgary is 6 points out of a playoff spot (3 games). They’ve just beaten Dallas and Vancouver who sit atop the NW division, yet they couldn’t beat Minnesota three times this year (that’s 6 points), or even the NYI.
As far-fetched as it sounds, Calgary is only 6 ponts behind and a run of say, I dunno, 8 games, could put them in playoff contention….
One thing they’ll need is Kiprusoff who’s been pulled 2 of his last 5 and gave up 7 versus Minnesota. Tonight he made 41 saves including a dandy in the shoot-out.
Calgary has been taken to school by Vancouver this year so far, and it looked like another long night for the squad 3 minutes in.
But give Calgary credit, they clawed back over and over again. They even upped the physical play.
The new look powerplay also clicked with Tim Jackman parked in front of the net. he contributed to the first Flames goal and also scored himself to give the Flames a 3-2 lead in the third.
Apart from a couple screen goals Kipper was lights out. If the Flames have any hope (and they don’t) they’ll ahve to ride this guy’s coat-tails to the prom.
Despite powerplays for both sides in OT the extra time didn’t solve anything so that meant a shootout.
Bourque (why him again???) scored, Jokinen hit the post (no Kevin Weeks, Luongo didn’t ’cause’ the post), and Tanguay put in a goal that required a video review.
Not too often you see video review in a shootout, but the puck was lost in the Boongo’s right pad. Although video evidence didn’t clearly show the puck, Boongo’s pad/body was clearly over the line–good call by officials.
Notes: No rest now, back at it with St Louis and Nashville coming to town. Two beatable teams that the Flames need to put away.