Calgary won their last game, but I gotta say it looked more like fortune than ability. A great Kipper and 3 fortuitous bounces eliminated the Oilers from play-off eligibility. It'll take more than that to claim the victory tonight I think.
FIRST PERIOD
20:00 - The Langkow line starts out against the Wild's checking line (Radiovojewkkwjsndfalks, Villieux...)
Anyone ever wonder why they tell you the name of the linesmen at the start of the game?
18:30 - The two forth lines face each and Dustin Boyd draws a hooking penalty. PP Calgary.
18:00 - GOAL! Langkow bangs home a rebound in the slot, staking the Flames to the early lead.
16:00 - Two straight shifts of Flames pressure punctuated by a couple of great chances for the Yelle line (Yelle/Primeau/Moss). Of course, they can't convert. The 4th lines meet again and this time Boyd is penalized for a high stick. PP Wild.
15:00 - Regehr and Sarich get chasing the puck on the PK and lose a man in front of the net. Bad, bad read, particularly by Regehr who was the second man in the corner. Fedoruk capitalizes and it's tied up.
Not a good start for a shut-down pair that has looked really, really mortal recently (thinking of the Vancouver loss here).
14:00 - Wild shoot the puck in and it hits Eriksson in the back. The puck drops at his feet and the Radivojevic grabs it and goes in alone. Luckily he's stopped by Kipper in close.
12:00 - Yelle draws a tripping penalty and the Flames go on their 2nd PP.
30 seconds in and the best chance goes to the Wild's Koivu who almost makes Aucoin look silly during a rush.
The Lombardi line comes out and generates some chances. The ref loses sight of the puck during a goalmouth scramble and prematurely blows the whistle killing the play. The Lombo unit has looked good so far.
The Iginla line gets the last 30 second of the PP and does nothing with it.
8:00 - Looks like Lemaire has targeted the Lombardi line and is sending Gaborik/Demitra out against them (perhaps more due to the presence of Juice than Nolan or Matthew). Nothing has come of it yet.
6:00 - Huselius and a Wild defender fall during a puck race into the corner and the zebras whistle Juice for "holding". Sigh. PP Wild.
Anders Eriksson is out there, even though he should not be killing penalties. It stuns me that Keenan hasn't figured this out yet. Jim Vandermeer has looked more capable in this regard since we acquired him.
Wild get a chance or two but dont pot one.
3:30 - The Iginla line has done sweet FA at ES so far and will need to be much better if Flames want to win this one.
3:00 - Vandermeer misses the puck in the neutral zone, resulting in a 2on1. Wild get a good shot but fail to get the rebound, thankfully.
1:30 - Phaneuf destroys Vellieux with an open ice hit, resulting in a penalty to Dion and a fight with Brent Burns. It turns into quite the spirited affair with both players getting good shots in.
Even though Shultz took an extra shot at Phaneuf after the play AND Burns jumped in to start the fight (uuuhhh...instigator??), the only extra 2 minutes goes to Dion for "interference". Ridiculous. PP wild.
Tanguay and Lombardi generate a 2on1 in the waning seconds, but Alex passes the puck into his skates. Period ends 1-1.
So-so period. First half was better than the 2nd from a Flames perspective. I'd say the balance of chances went to the Wild, thanks mainly to their 3-1 PP advantage.
There was a sequence near the end of the first that perfectly reflected the major problems the Flames have on the back-end:
Minnesota shoots the puck in and goes off to change. Regehr gathers the puck around the half boards and sends it over to Sarich. The pass is sort of weak and bouncing and Sarich mishandles it. It drifts towards the boards and now there's a lone forechecker bearing down on him. Cory kind of panics and shoots the puck through the forechecker's legs, back towards Regehr. Of course, the puck is 2 feet in front of Reggie, so he fumbles to get control of it. At this point, the Wild have completed their change and coming at the Flames at full speed.
So we go from what should have been a routine 1-2 pass into the neutral zone (ie; an easy break-out) to a clumsy exchange that causes the Flames to lose possession. This type of stuff seems to happen with the Flames A LOT.
2ND PERIOD
20:00 - Course, Flames start on the PK. Lombardi+Nolan have been the new 1st PK unit so far.
19:00 - Wild get a hooking penalty, but Boyd lifts the puck over the glass in his own end. 4 on 4 is the result.
18:00 - Gabbers slashes Vandermeer's stick in half...and Vandermeer gets the penalty! In fact, Vandermeer had the puck...but goes off slashing anyways. WTF!!
4on3 for the Wild.
Flames get caught on a bad change and the Wild get a glorious chance on a 3on1. Kipper slides across and makes an astonishing pad stop on Gaborik.
Flames kill the penalties and we're back to 5on5. Iginla line gets the shift after the PK.
14:00 - Boogaard slashes the stick out of Yelle's hands in the offensive zone........no call.
It's going to be "one of those nights" I fear.
13:00 - Anders Eriksson over-commits towards the boards during a Wild rush into the Flames zone (as he so often does. See Edmonton's first goal last game) and ends up getting beat and taking a hooking penalty. Another Minny PP.
Lombardi and Tanguay with some stellar PKing. PP ends without incident.
10:00 - Iginla and Huselius get a 2on1 thanks to a decent pass by Vandermeer. Jarome blasts it wide, which is something he's done way too much the last 2 games.
8:30 - Fedoruk gets a partial break thanks to a bad read the poor skating of Adrian Aucoin. Kipper stymies him though.
That's right. Fedoruk is as fast - or faster - than Aucoin.
5:30 - Flames are hanging on at this point in the period. Two straight icings.
5:00 - Gaborik gets the puck alone in front but is stopped from getting a shot by a diving Lombardi. Great play.
4:00 - Eriksson with an ill-advised pinch leads to a near odd-man break. Luckily the shot goes wide.
God Eriksson sucks.
2:30 - Adrian Aucoin shoots the puck into a block for the 20th time tonight, nearly leading to break-away for Minnesota. Kipper comes way out and clears the puck before the Wild player can get there.
Also...Aucoin has been brutal tonight.
Not a very good period for Calgary, although that was assisted by the, uh..."curious" officiating. While the Flames have more shots, the Wild have clearly had the better scoring chances. On the bright side, Kipper has been stellar and the game is tied going into the 3rd.
On the not so bright side, the Flames big guns have been pretty ineffective so far. The Iggy line had maybe 2 ES shifts that generated anything resembling scoring chances. Jarome looks locked into one of those phases where he can't seem to get shots on net or fight through the traffic like he can when he's on a roll.
John Garrett talking about the Flames, saying "when the Flames have their offense going, you see Dion Phaneuf jumping into the play...CORY SARICH jumping into the play..."
Cory Sarich? Really John? Im going to have to assume that you were on the spot and just throwing a name out there. not only does Sarich never, ever, EVER jump into the play, he'd be useless if he ever did.
Apparently, Washington won AGAIN tonight 4-1. Ovechkin with another two goals, giving him an astounding 65 on the year. That about wraps up the Hart for him I'd say, if there was any doubt left. If they make it into the post-season, Im going to declare the Caps my "Eastern" team.
In other good news, Sens beating the crap out the Leafs 8-2.
3RD PERIOD
20:00 - The Iginla line starts the third and get a good chance...but fail to even geta shot on net (Tanguay passes it off, as he tends to do).
We're told Yelle has left the game due to a Boogaard hit.
19:00 - Aucoin gets beat - again - in the neutral zone and this time Gaborik makes the Flames play.
Aucoin has been the worst Flame on the ice tonight. He turns what should be a routine play in the neutral zone into a break-away for the most dangerous adversary on the ice.
18:00 - Alex Tangya sets up Jarome at the side of the net, but, predictaby at this point, Iginla can't bury the chance.
The Wild take a holding penalty shortly thereafter and the Flames go on the PP. Go to hope for something here, cuz the Wild are going to be stifling at ES.
Both Flame units generate quality chances, but can't score. Encouraging, but ultimately useless.
15:00 - Gaborik stuffs a puck in during a scramble, but the goal is initially waved off (whistle went first?). Going upstairs to check, though.
Honestly, that looks like a goal to me.
Wow...Flames get a huge break and the original call stands. Hopefully they can take advantage and tie the game up.
14:00 - For the 3rd time this game, Tanguay passes the puck off in a prime scoring area, resulting in an opportunity lost. Rough game for Alex.
Iginla and crew look unsually slow tonight to my eye. Is that just me?
Looks like the Preds are ahead of the Blues 3-2 in the third. No help there.
10:00 - Lomabrdi goes end-to-end with an impressive individual effort, but can't make anything of it. He and Phaneuf seem to be the only two that can gain the zone with the puck on their stick.
9:30 - Cory "Minor" Sarich almost gets beaten by Rolston but ends up giving him the ol' can-opener and takes what seems like his 500th penalty this year. PP Wild, their 6th of the game.
Flames will have about 7 minutes to tie it up...assuming they kill this one off. Sorry folks, I dont have a good feeling about this game.
7:00 - Annnd...with Eriksson and Phaneuf killing the penalty, Gaborik rifles home a shot from the slot. You can pretty much stick a fork into this one I'd say.
5:30 - With the Flames looking to get back into it, the Wild are the ones getting the chances. Rolston fires one just wide from the top of the circles. Flames ice the puck shortly thereafter.
5:00 - The Iginla line keeps getting stifled at the offensive blueline. Minny is all over Jarome and he looks impotent and frustrated.
2:00 - Flames lack of a transition game and the Wild's trap is completely nullifying any potential attack.
Calgary can't even get out of their own end at this point. This baby's over.
0:00 - Gabbers had a chance at the open net, but missed. Wild win nonetheless.
Minnesota wins their first division banner. Calgary never really had a chance to win this one: aside from the first 10 minutes, they were pretty consistently the 2nd best team on the ice. Gaborik vastly outplayed Iginla in this big game, with the help of some very poor performances from the Flames back-end - notably Adrian Aucoin, who looks more and more like a big, fat $4M anchor for next year.
Flames now have the unenviable task of a.) trying to clinch a play-off spot in vancouver on Saturday and b.) potentially facing SJS or DET in the play-offs. Very, very poor result for Calgary tonight.
Now we are forced to cheer for an Edmonton win over the Nucks.
Go Oil!
