Two bottom basement dwellers in the NW division faced off tonight in Minnesota. Calgary is coming off a season worse 7-2 loss against rivals Vancouver. They had a chance to meet the Wild again for the second time in 5 days.

The Flames won Monday, and they needed a crucial 2 points against a very beatable team tonite. (The Flames need to play about .620 hockey the rest of the way.) It took a shootout but Calgary prevailed, barely….


The Flames dominated 5v5 play, again, but their PP needs work. That’s been the name of the game since 1999? Iginla pulled the team for a while in the first and second period, but the powerplay couldnt capitalize. Great teams (or heck just playoff teams) need to SCORE consistently on the PP.

Calgary still isn’t firing on all cylinders; every line seems to have one player who’s out to lunch. Couple that with under-performing forwards Jokinen and Stajan, and injuries, well you get the idea why the Flames are losing.

What was interesting about their streak lately was Darryl Sutter’s comments at intermission. He said he expected the team to be around .500 (two games under now). He cites all the injuries as the reason to the Flames’ woes.

Hopefully the Flames start pulling out huge wins because the season is on the bring and the schedule doesn’t get easier from here. Blackhawks Sunday, Lighting after that….

Notes: Henrik Karlsson started in goal and put in a solid performance. The game was won in the shoot out, Calgary actually seems to be getting the shootout down this year….would rather win in regular time though.

Bourque with the winner in the shootout, but his even strength play looks really slow…………