The Captain with 829 career points is just two points shy of becoming the Flames all time leading scorer. Way to go, Jarome!
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Thus, the Flames ended the week of February 22nd glamorously and there are many multiple noteworthy causes for their success, particularly in last night’s contest. In his first NHL debut, David Van der Gulik led his teammates in shots against the Wild. Jamie Lundmark scored his first NHL goal while Mike Cammalleri tallied his 31st and 32nd of the season; Alas, Miika Kiprusoff was but 3.36 minute shy of his shut out bid. In sum, with their awe-inspiring team effort, the Flames sustained their fourth straight win and nine game point streak.
With a total of four losses and 7 wins, the Flames commence the month of March with the following games of which, one is on home ice and three are on the road.
Game 62: Flames host the Tampa Bay Lightning @ 6:00 pm on Sportsnet
On Sunday, March 1st, the Flames host the Tampa Bay Lightning who rank 28th in the league. Having accumulated a total of 52 points in 62 games, the Lightning is 20-30-12 with a road record of nine wins, eighteen losses and four ties. Subsequently, their power play and penalty killing percentage is considerably lower than the Flames and averages 16.60% and 80.07 % respectively.
Game 63: Flames visit the Senators in Ottawa @ 5:30 pm on PPV
En route to Ottawa on Tuesday, the 3rd, the Flames meet their Canadian counterparts who rank 27th in the league. The Senators are 23-28-9 with a home record of 13-11-5. Their power play is marginally higher at 18.80% but concurrently their lower penalty killing sits at 81.71%. Like the Flames, they have scored six shorthanded goals thus far, but the Flames had defeated their eastern counterparts on December 27th by a score of 6-3.
Game 64: To Philadelphia on March 5th @ 5:00 pm on PPV
On Thursday, the Flames meet the Flyers (33-17-10) who have accumulated a total of 76 points in 60 games and are 8th in the league. Although, they have a stronger power play percentage of 22.22%, their penalty killing is slightly weaker at 82.84%. At the same time, they have a home record of 18-8-4. The only distressing fact for the Flames to watch out for is that their opponents have scored as many as 16 shorthanded goals.
The above two games (#63 and #64) will be available on line as well.
Game 65: Flames in Carolina @5:00 pm on Sportsnet
The Flames complete their road trip against the Hurricanes on Friday, March 6th. Unfortunately, this will be another tiring trip for them as they play two games in less than 24 hours. Nonetheless, the Carolina Hurricanes rank 14th in the league; they are 32-26-5 with a home record of 17-13-1. Their power play and penalty killing averages 15.63% and 79.40% respectively.
Conclusively, it is difficult to speculate whether the outcome this week will be identical to the last, but conspicuously, the Flames (37-18-6) rank 6th in the league. This encompasses a home and road record of (22-7-4) and (15-11-2) respectively. Although their power play averages only 18.15% their penalty killing continues to excel at 86.52%. Notwithstanding the injuries, they have indeed restructured a strategy that is in sync with their game winning ways.
Please note, all the above games will be hosted by Peter Maher and Mike Rogers on the Fan 960.
Statistics as of February 28th
