Calgary Flames Take It To OT With Those Pesky Stars

On the anniversary of (quite possibly) the most beloved Calgary Flames captain’s birth, ahem that would be Lanny MacDonald, the Flames walked away with one point in an overtime loss.

After a rough start with the Dallas Stars going up 9:42 in the first with a goal by Adam Burish, current captain Jarome Iginla didn’t let that go long, at 19:07 when a beauty of a pass from Alex Tanguay slips past Kari Lehtonen.

In the second period a lovely wrestling match broke out between Mike Cammalleri and Mark Fistric, which didn’t result in any penalties.  Odd seeing how have both men ended up on their knees at the blue line, butting heads until it was broken up.  As noted, the game up until this point had been rather safe.  But it didn’t last, Tim Jackman was jumped by Fistric as he attempted and failed to draw the penalty.  Followed by Mike Riberio with a slashing call that yielded a very vocal fight between Iginla and Steve Ott (a fine tradition of theirs) and a seven second 4 on 4 as Olli Jokinen goes to the box on a slashing call that ends up giving the Stars a lead.

Third period started with no update on Jamie Benn who was cut by a skate on his leg during the second.  In a Stars heavy third period, that resulted in a flurry of shots on Kipper until it was broken up by penalty, delay of game, but a man advantage is welcome.  While no goal resulted in that power play, Lehtonen faced an onslaught of shots and Ott charged/boarded Iginla which resulted in another power play opportunity.  Stars did a better job keeping the puck away from Lehtonen and kept the powerplay scoreless until Cammalleri  knocked the puck in seconds after they returned to even strength.  After that, the game became one giant sprint up and down the ice until the third came to an end with a 2-2 tie.

Overtime was going poorly, Stars had control of the puck the vast majority of the and it paid off as Riberio scored as the Flames stood by and watch him rocket the shot past them.

20 goals since the All Star Break, 12 of those goals came from either Jokinen or Iginla, 7 from the rest of the team.  Hate to break it to you guys, but that’s not going to help the Flames advance to the playoffs.  They will never get past the first round with those two and Miikka Kiprusoff.  It’s a team effort.  The rest of the team needs to step it up if they expect a playoff push.  With the Phoenix Coyotes game still going on, the Flames sit and wait to see if they are tied for 8th or lag behind by 2 points.

With a day off before the Flames face the LA Kings in LA, we can only hope the Coyotes help them out in the battle for 8th place.

Go Flames Go!