Kipper with Earned Shut Out
Calgary played their second game in as many nights staying in California overnight and taking the brief trip to LA to play the Kings. There were no changes to the lineup after the heartbreaking loss versus Anaheim in overtime, however, the lines did change frequently throughout.
The game opened at an exciting pace but Calgary quickly got into penalty trouble early. Adrian Aucoin played 12 minutes in the first mostly on the PK. However, when the Flames defense failed Miikka Kiprusoff, playing in back to back nights, came up huge.
Calgary eventually had their chance on the PP and Todd Bertuzzi made a pretty deke to set up a wide open Mike Cammalleri for his 29th of the season. 1-0 Flames (We’ll post up an article soon about why we think he’ll resign with Calgary.)
After the goal LA managed to sustain most of the play that went back and forth through the zones. More penalties and more outstanding saves by Kipper kept the Flames in it.
In the third the Kings got their second 5v3 of the game. Despite a veteran referee tandem both yesterday and tonight had a disproportionately high number of penalties. Also for the second time in two games Dion Phaneuf threw a nice open ice hit popping Drew Doudie and giving the Flames their next man-advantage with some timely discipline.
Would Iginla do anything? Heck no, the guy is coasting folks….The puck was rarely even in the LA zone on the POWERPLAY when the first line was on! The best chance came on a late 2v1 when Pahneuf and Bertuzzi were caught deep and late. Kipper took the shot and the rebound came out into the crease but Giordano made the amazing recovery.
You got the sense with Kipper’s amazing play that LA wasn’t going to score. Try as they might, keeping the puck deep in the Flames zone, when Calgary were caught running around, the netminder. Calgary weathered a heavy LA storm but put the icing on the cake with Rene Bourque’s 19th into the empty net.
Notes: Mike Keenan moved ahead of Pat Quinn for fourth all-time wins for NHL coaches. Kipper with his 30th shutout of his career.