Terrible special teams and the inability to play with the lead late caused Calgary to loose exceptionally important divisional points. The second of eight meetings between the two teams took place this time at home for the Flames. The game started with enough energy but the Avalanche scored first. Calgary had plenty of opportuntiy to put the game away but could not


Despite dominance for 55 minutes it was probably Calgary’s powerplay that let the team down. Twice they had 5v3 power plays and couldn’t score. Although they did put the puck in the net once, glorious Mick McGeough blew the whistle too early (remember that Edmonton?). A couple of posts and missed wide open nets coupled with a shaky goalie should have been a recipe for a run up.

Conversely, on rare Avalanche PP opportunity they capitalised late in period three. This didn’t help to get the crowd in the game late. But then again, for the past two or three games the Calgary crowd has been a disappointment.There’s a lot of excitement and reasons to cheer but Calgary is getting fat with their oil money :P

The game was ultimately decided in OT. For some reason Keenan loves Phanuef, and yes he is playing with authority. We all know neither Iginla or Tanguay play defense, so when Phaneuf decides to go play forward in OT that leaves a for sure (everyone in the building knew it was coming) a two-on-one break going the other way. Just so happens on this case Smyth and Sakic ensured less than a minute in. The result was a Smyth goal and Flames loss.

In all in all it’s not big deal if you can dominate play all game, if you can’t take two points it’s a wasted effort. For once Kiprusoff didn’t loose the game (but then again he was never really tested.)

Notes: Additional scoring from lines 3-4 (and line two which is Conroy and Nolan) just can’t score. This arrangement has to change if the team wants to move away from mediocrity.