The Flames have a knack of losing to crappy teams and beating the good ones. Think of it this way. At this point Calgary is 6 points out of a playoff spot (3 games). They’ve just beaten Dallas and Vancouver who sit atop the NW division, yet they couldn’t beat Minnesota three times this year (that’s 6 points), or even the NYI.

As far-fetched as it sounds, Calgary is only 6 ponts behind and a run of say, I dunno, 8 games, could put them in playoff contention….

One thing they’ll need is Kiprusoff who’s been pulled 2 of his last 5 and gave up 7 versus Minnesota. Tonight he made 41 saves including a dandy in the shoot-out.

Calgary has been taken to school by Vancouver this year so far, and it looked like another long night for the squad 3 minutes in.


But give Calgary credit, they clawed back over and over again. They even upped the physical play.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fkiotTBOzk]

The new look powerplay also clicked with Tim Jackman parked in front of the net. he contributed to the first Flames goal and also scored himself to give the Flames a 3-2 lead in the third.

Apart from a couple screen goals Kipper was lights out. If the Flames have any hope (and they don’t) they’ll ahve to ride this guy’s coat-tails to the prom.

Despite powerplays for both sides in OT the extra time didn’t solve anything so that meant a shootout.

Bourque (why him again???) scored, Jokinen hit the post (no Kevin Weeks, Luongo didn’t ’cause’ the post), and Tanguay put in a goal that required a video review.

Not too often you see video review in a shootout, but the puck was lost in the Boongo’s right pad. Although video evidence didn’t clearly show the puck, Boongo’s pad/body was clearly over the line–good call by officials.

Notes: No rest now, back at it with St Louis and Nashville coming to town. Two beatable teams that the Flames need to put away.