Rivalries were renewed early as the Calgary Flames visited the Vancouver Canucks for their third meet of the season. Neither team has yet to register a win in pre-season season play so one would walk away with a W tonight.
Right off the bat Godard answers a big hit from Burrows with some punches. Burrows is the type of players who can crash and bang in the NHL without fear of reprisal (think Hollweg for NY.) Godard and Burrows dropped their gloves but Godard took 4 minutes and Burrows got nothing. With 1.5 minutes left in his 4 minutes Adrian Aucoin went off for high-sticking; 5v3 for a minute. The Canucks couldn’t capitalize and the Flames escaped unscathed.
The Canucks had a number of PP chances (so did the Flames) in the first period but the end of the period came and the neither team scored. This could have been because both Kipersoff and Luongo were both in goal. Godard managed another double minor somehow (late hit?) but this time Cooke didn’t get any penalties. Apparently the league has a mandate to let small players get away with chippy play at the cost of the goon.
Calgary managed to kill off the double minor from Godard and away they went. Vancouver managed to break the scoreless tie with a goal mid-way through the second. Away to the third we go when early on Vancouver managed to pot 2 quick goals on McElhinney who came in for the third period. The second goal he had little chance, but letting in three in one period doesn’t help his chances to win the back up position.
So why can’t Calgary score? Should we be worried with a 0-3 pre-season? I don’t think so. The only goal scorer we had in the line up was Tanguay and Lombardi. Another round of cuts should trim down the roster and give more players some time to play. Of course, we don’t need THAT many games to get into shape (and to risk injuries) so maybe we can keep the roster a bit fatter for now.