Yet another game where Flames have games in hands and need points to stay in the race of the NW division. Tonight, the Flames started off strong in the first period but let up late.
The first period saw basic forecheck that makes Flames 5v5 dominate. Phanuef managed to let a blast go and Iginla tipped it in for another goal. They did a good job for most of the first period but fell asleep late, with 15 seconds left Florida tied it up. Midway through the first Chuck Kobasew was knocked out by a Bryan Allen hit. Chuck left the game and didn’t return. Again, any other team would have beat Allen, but since our tallest guy is Huselius nobody is willing to jump in. Bring up Godard and nobody will take liberties.
Off to the second period. Things were pretty slow, some penalty killing by the Flames and then Bam–fight. LIke I said, Huselius is the tallest Flames and nobody would fight Allen for his ELBOW (not shoulder look at the replay) for his knockout hit on Kobasew. Iginla drops the gloves at the end of the shift and beats up (in a slow fight) Allen who’s a head taller than Iginla. (See the fight in the gallery). What happens, 30 seconds later Tanguay off a nice feed by Warrener makes it 2-1. It seems Iginla has to do everything and dominates even in the penalty box.
Iginla’s first fight of the year turned up the heat on the Flames play which was quiet for most of the second. Panthers were trying to play tight all game taking out the Flames speed but couldn’t beat the 5v5 play of Calgary. But bad news perhaps on the horizon, Iginla never returned after exiting the penalty box in the second.
The third period started without Iginla, so bad news. A big loss to Calgary as Iginla doesn’t miss for kicks, more on him later I’m sure. The Flames didn’t really answer, kept on playing slow, getting thrashed around, no forward ready to answer since they’re all under 6’2.
Huselius did score, but off a super highstick. Play went back and forth with Calgary missing two right wingers for the entire third. For some reason the Flames aren’t conditioned enough to keep up pressure. In back to back games the Panthers outworked and out hussled the Flames non-stop in the third. (Giordano on the ice again, looks like Zyuzin should have played?).
Nobody wanted to pick up the pace in the third period. The Flames were embarrassed by a team that is the last in their division and dominated when it counted. 5v5 the Panthers were a better club in the third, scoring twice to take the win.
Mclennan largely played well, however, the forth goal was a floater that should have been stop although the Flames defencemen backed too far in. Ritchie answered quickly with a goal but it was too little too late. It’s as if the loss of Iginla was too much for the Flames to handle.
But get this, the game in Vancovuer Tthe Flames clawed back. The fans (who were quiet all night) finally cheered for two minutes and in that time the Flames got two goals. Moss scored on a nice solo effort in front of the net and tied the game 4-4.
Well get this, a quiet and poor Flames effort was changed in two minutes and off to OT we went. The final minute was energizing with the Flames feeding off their two goals. They managed to draw a hooking penalty that would later spill over into OT.
The Flames wouldn’t score on the PP, but they would finish it off. I bashed Giordano earlier but he ends up scoring the game winner. Fancy that, the Flames come back with a win from behind, wow. Games in hand, wins, yea, first place.
