Calgary Chips Away for Home Win
Jim Playfair apparently like to bench one of the leagues hottest players. In fact, even in tonight’s game, Kristian Huselius started the game on the 4th line. However, this didn’t stop him from making an impact. Huselius had two gaols and a nice set up on Dion Phaneuf’s tiebreaking goal.
After being benched for parts of Thursday’s 7-5 loss to the Avalanche, Huselius responded with the kind of dazzling offensive display that had almost become routine during a recent 15-game scoring streak.
With the score tied 2-2, Phaneuf put the Flames ahead at 16:31 of the second with his 14th goal of the season. As Huselius cut towards the middle, he slid the puck back the opposite direction to a waiting Phaneuf, who ripped a slap shot past Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj.
Jarome Iginla (28th) and Stephane Yelle, with an empty-netter, also scored for Calgary.
Huselius’ second of the night and 27th of the season came at 9:08 of the third period, on a wrist shot over Budaj’s blocker from a near impossible angle after being set up by Iginla.
In the back-and-forth Northwest Division race, the Flames climbed back into a tie for first place with Vancouver. Minnesota is just one point back. Colorado sits 10th in the Western Conference, nine points back of the eighth-place Wild and will play Vancouver tomorrow.
Calgary will have to play another solid game Tuesday to capitalize on a hurting Colorado team. But, hopefully they’ll beat Vancouver tomorrow.
Notes: David Moss did not return to the game after being hit from behind by Ossi Vaananen who received a game misconduct. Calgary could not score on the major powerplay.
