It's crunch time and as teams get better Calgary gets progressively worse. A disappointing road trip for the Calgary Flames ends with a 3-0 shutout to the Columbus Blue Jackets leaving the Flames two points behind the Minnesota Wilds in the battle for the Northwest Division. Simultaneously, the Columbus Blue Jackets showed more resilience and seemed more committed in the race for the playoffs.
Calgary may miss the playoffs, and four straight losses on this brief road trip could mean the end. What's worse, Calgary came into Atlanta and dominated the first period. It makes sense, considering the team had a slow start yesterday it's only fitting they would start fast today. Calgary went up 3-0 early but a couple of defensive mistakes gave Atlanta life in a span of a minute.
The two MVP candidates faced each other in a rare meeting in Washington. The early game pitted Jarome Iginla against league the goal leader in the NHL Alex Ovechkin. Calgary sought to being their four game road-trip out east with a bang, but it must have been the early start because it was the SAME OLD START!
Not before one minute had expired in the opening frame--just two shifts in--Calgary gave up a regular strength goal. The usual start for the 'ever-other-game' Flames. Lucky for the Flames the Caps were slow on maintaining momentum.
March 10, 2008 at 10:02 pm
· Filed under Post Game
Jarome Iginla became the franchise leading goal-scoring leader with this 365th goal in the first period of the Flames’ 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues. Calgary's offense exploded as players snapped droughts and benefited from a little bit of luck as well. The Flames have been stuck in a bit of a goal-scoring slump as top lines have failed to produce goals (namely Huselius, Langkow, and Lombardi). Slow starts and secondary scoring have kept fans on the edge of their seat, but it took only 21 seconds for their fortunes to change.
Miikka Kiprusoff recorded his second shutout of the season in a game that saw the Flames return to their old dirty tricks. By dirty tricks I mean the 'trick' they pull about talking how they'll play a great and hard fought game but really they pull out a junker. Outshot 2-1 and outplayed all game, Calgary was lucky yet again to pull out two points and fans are still unsure if they'll even record a win in the playoffs let alone make it there given their current play.
Consistency? Heck no, not yet, and there's just no more time to wait.
