Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye
The Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens renewed acquaintances at the Dome with both teams facing the prospect of losing five straight. The Flames boast a 7-1-0 record against the Eastern division, however, lately they’ve had trouble finding the net and playing D. Both of these problems continued tonight.
On a side note, this was perhaps the loudest crowd in recent memory. One thing we can say about Montreal fans is they know how to cheer for the home team, even when they are away. The electricity gave Flames fans reason to make a bit more noise than usual, and to serenade the import fans with one of their own chants ‘hey hey hey good bye’ at the end…..classic.
The first period was certainly entertaining for both sides with speed and hits. Unfortunately, although Calgary dominated most of the play, they forgot to play defense. Again, the problem for this recent losing skid is the abandonment of scoring and defense….so pretty much the entire game plan. Montreal scored twice off of defensive breakdowns and Cammalleri, who accounts for almost half of Flames scoring in the last dozen games, gave Calgary one.
Calgary started the second with a PP, not that it mattered since it can’t score goals. They later had a 5v3 for almost an entire 2 minutes but barely mustered the shot. However, in this game it was special teams that came through.
The PK did their job preventing goals, lead by Kiprusoff’s amazing stack the pads cross crease saved. You can’t win games if you don’t score, and the PK isn’t supposed to do that, but tonight they did, and they did it twice.
First Lombardi tied the game with his short-handed marker (pretty sure Glencross should have been called for tripping). 15 seconds later Phanuef got lucky and put the Flames up by one. Later, Dustin Boyd went alone in the breakaway to score his first in 16 games and gave the Flames a 2 goal lead.
Third period Calgary started to find their feet improving their puck pursuit. Cory Sarich plus three and one assist setting up David Moss. The second line with Lombardi, Cammalleri, and Bourque then closed the scoring at six with great down low pressure.
Calgary came around as the game wore on finding their legs and returning to their bread and butter. We can only hope their new found abilities will translate into more goals and wins during the upcoming road swing.
Notes: Six goals and not one from the top line.
It was a good game nontheless (especially after the 4 game losing streak). It seems like the Old Flames are back and running. As you say, hopefully this shooting gallery pursuits continue this week and the next….
We’ll find out in the next two days. We’ll see if Iginla actually does something to score.