The Flames added another odd chapter to their 7 game roadtrip by exploding for 7 goals last night against the Blues.
That's right. 7!
So, less than a week after suffering their worst defeat of the season, the Flames decide to post their biggest victory.
Granted, they were playing a deflated St. Louis Blues team. And granted, Calgary benefitted from some really shakey opposition goaltending. But I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Like a lot of Flames fans, I've been waiting for this blow-out win all season long...
...speaking of waiting all season long, Leopold finally scored last night. In fact, he nearly had two goals, the first being later credited to Darren McCarty. thankfully, Leo uncorked a floating wrister that made it's way past Lalime in the second - and, amazingly, it wasn't given to someone else or waved off for some reason. I half expected Leo to collect the puck as a souvenir of removing that giant ape from his back.
And, as if the game wasn't odd enough, he of the maligned trade deadline acquistion (Jamie Lundmark) made the best of his 12 minutes of ice and tallied three assists (all in the second). He was also a stellar 9 for 13 (69%) in the face-off dot. Not too shabby! It may be difficult for Lombardi to return to the line-up any time soon if Lundmark continues to contribute in this fashion.
Overall, it was nice to see Calgary win this kind of important game in such convincing fashion. I was nervous going into last night's contest, given Calgary's penchant for playing down to their competition on the road. Imagine how pleasantly suprised I was to see "CGY - 5 STL - 0, 2nd Int." crawl across the screen while I was watching Montreal rough up Toronto last night (*giggle).
Yes, it was pretty close to a perfect evening. Had the Canuck's managed to get the job done in regulation yesterday, I probably could have gone to bed and died happily in my sleep.
Positives:
- Scoring oh glorious scoring!! Goals raining as if from the heavens! Flames score 7 for the first time this year and finally manage to blow someone out.
- Jordan Leopold. Scores. Finally. Anyone who reads this regularly knows I had him in the "negatives" section a few posts ago for not scoring. He sure showed me. 1 goal and 3 points on the night.
- Jamie Lundmark. Draws into the line-up at Lombardi's expense and records 3 straight assists in the 2nd period and dominates in the face-off circle.
- Roman Hamrlik. 2 goals on 2 absolute bullet shots. When was the last time a Calgary defensman scored a short-handed goal?
- Powerplay. Goes 3for6 on the night.
- Defense. After 3 consecutive games of allowing 35+ shots against, Calgary limited the Blues to a repsectable 22 last night.
- Secondary scoring. Finally a game where the 3rd and 4th liners show-up on the scoresheet en masse.
Negatives:
- Too many penalties. Again. Gave up 7 PP advantages on the night.
- Dion Phaneuf. Didn't register a point, but did get 8 minutes in penalties.
- The first line. It's a minor complaint, but Calgary's #1 line of Iginla, Huselius and Langkow collected all of 2 points on the evening (Langkow/Iginla assists). Given the quality of defensemen and goalies they were facing, it would have been nice to see these guys pad their stats a little. If only for the resultant confidence boost.
Next up...the BJ's tonight!
*Note - Calgary only needs another 2 points to garner 7 total from this trip. Let's hope they get the job against Columbus before heading into Dallas on Sunday...
