Eight of the next nine games will be on the road, which may not be that bad since the Flames tend to win there. What they haven’t been doing at home, or recently in games, is bring a killer instinct of ‘firebrand’ hockey (the words of coach Sutter) on a game by game basis.
This afternoon Calgary started their road swing in LA without their top LW Rene Bourque who got his bell rung in the debacle that was the home game versus Chicago. In his place was Jamie Lundmark who started on the top line. I’m not sure how you go from the minors to the top line with Jokinen and Iginla but it seems to be the Flames way of patching in wingers.
One thing was for sure, Calgary was embarrassed Thursday and they weren’t going to get pushed around against the Kings. It didn’t take long for the captain to make his presence felt scoring a quick goal 13 seconds into the first.
Calgary put in a solid first road period leading in shots and hits. THe second period on the other hand had moments of vintage Flame hockey. In a span of 30 seconds the Flames dropped down 2-1 thanks to some defensive breakdowns.
Moments of mental lapse are the bane to the Flames problems this season and we can only hope they slowly come out of their game. Unfortunately over a quarter of the way in it doesn’t look like it’s going away.
Calgary tied the game off of Jarome Iginla’s 14th goal on a 5v3 powerplay thanks to a pretty pass from Jay Bouwmeester. Calgary had 6 PP changes and only capitalized on one, another aspect that requires attention.
THe go ahead goal in the third period came after some old fashion gumption on the penalty kill. Daymond Langkow kept the puck deep in the LA zone and was replaced by Glencross who flipped a saucer backhanded pass (not easy to do) back to Langkow for the SHG.
The scoring wasn’t done as Iginla, with two penalties in the third period, wrapped up his hat-trick bid after some solid down low pressure. That’s the ninth career hat-trick and the 15th goal of the season for the captain and only two behind the league leader. Jokinen, two posts tonight, looked good on the top line, but it was Lundmark who seems to have added a spark to the top line.
The PP cashed in again to give the Flames 5 on the afternoon. 2 for 7 which isn’t half bad but it didn’t perform when the game was on the line. David Moss
Very well played game by Calgary today. They actually looked like they cared in this game compared to last. Olli is looking like he might be coming out of his horrible slump, and what else can you say about Iggy. Defense played well, all around great game. Keep it up guys. GO FLAMES GO!!!!
It was a good game in terms of the score, shots on goal, power play goals and a short handed tally. It was good to see the Flames kill all the penalties and score two power play goals – What a great beginning for the road trip. Way to go, boys!!
Congratulations to the captain for his 9th career hat trick, Langkow for his short handed efforts
To Lundmark, “thank you for your excellent and timely performance”; and to Olli Jokinen “your performance on ice is not going unnoticed”. Keep it up, boy.
To Moss, “thanks for your power play effort.
Great overall effort and congratulations to the Calgary Flames for dethroning the Kings.
To all the helpers, Boumeester, Glencross, Jokinen, Phaneuf, “thank you for chipping in”
How can we forget the time out call from Brent Sutter when the Flames were down 2-1?. It was definitely a great move by Sutter to put things into perspective.
Go Flames Go.
I’m watching the first period of the Flames Ducks game and I’m seeing a total trend. Wtf does whenever Calgary gets scored on, do they get scored on again within 2 mins? Pisses me off….