The story before this game wasn’t the red hot Flames versus the lame duck Islanders, rather, the surprise entry of Mikael Backlund into the Flames lineup due to a Bertuzzi back injury. In case you don’t recall, Backlund was playing in the under-18 tournament gold-medal game, and rather than return home to Sweden to play in the mens league, he opted to remain in North America. The Flames were preparing to send him to the WHL or the minors, but instead he was the extra body they needed to fill Bertuzzi’s spot.
It didn’t take long for the rookie to create some goalscoring chances. 6 seconds in he hit the post and had another good chance later in the period on the PP. Calgary managed to put themselves up by two thanks to a PP marker from Cammalleri.
In the second, Calgary opened quickly with Rene Bourque’s goal, but the tide quickly turned in NY’s favour. Despite almost six straight minutes in PP time in the second, Calgary just coasted through only hitting the post during their man advantage. Right after the penalties NY roared back with two unanswered goals.
With two minutes left in the second Langkow recorded his third point of the game scoring to give the Flames the lead before the third. Curtis Glencross would continue his scoring streak giving the Flames another two goal cushion. To close out t he scoring Adam Pardy scored his first goal in his NHL career, after that, it was a boring lull until the finish. Another two points for the good guys.
Notes: 15 goals a piece for Langkow, Cammalleri, and Bourque. Backlund played just over 10 minutes, had time on the third, first, and ended on the fourth line.
