Game Recap: Flames Versus Them Pesky Stars Take Two
By Cait Platt
Calgary Flame faced off against the Dallas Stars tonight, the second time in 55 hours. The last time these two teams met, the Flames walked away with only one goal against Kari Lehtonen by Mike Cammalleri late in the 1st while the Stars walked away with 4 goals against Miikka Kiprusoff. Tonight the Flames walk away with 2 points and their hopes of the playoffs somewhat in tact with a 5-4 win over the Stars.
Calgary got off to a rough start as Jamie Benn had a wrist shot that got past Kipper at :26 into the 1st. Not exactly the best way to rebound from the 4-1 loss on Saturday. However, the power shifted as Trevor Daley takes the first penalty of the game as he high sticks Alex Tanguay at 5:51. Going into this game, Stars were 8th in the league with a 83.9% PK and the Flames were 19th in the league on the power play (17.3%). Olli Jokinen managed to change those numbers up a bit, as he scored with 13:07 to go in the 1st in the waning seconds of the powerplay. Jokinen finally broke his point drought, first point in 8 games. This was also his 27th power play point of the season.
There was almost another play shift as Mark Giordano hooked Adam Burish at 8:42. Lucky for the Flames, the Stars are 28th in the league on the power play (14.5%) and they are 10th on the PK (83.8%) and you saw that in spades as the Flames managed to keep almost all goals by the Stars to even strength. Jay Bouwmeester managed do something decent as he blocks a shot that had a big bouncing rebound, killing the final seconds of the power play. Flames nearly screwed it up again as Chris Butler clipped Ryan Garbutt in the face with a high stick. Tanguay almost had a goal on a break away in the final seconds of the power play, but he missed on a shot that is usually his go to move in the shoot out (glove side, high). Stephane Robidas was sent to the box with 2:32 minutes left in the 1st, but the Flames were unable to do anything with the man advantage as the Stars succeeded in playing keep away for more than half the penalty.
SECOND PERIOD
Flames mess up again as Benn got a second goal almost the as quickly as his first, 44 seconds into the 2nd with another wrister past Kipper. Sheldon Souray got a little reckless with his stick at 2:16 and was called for high sticking on Cammy, but the man advantage didn’t last the full two minutes as Cammy called for tripping 3:43. Flames and Stars traded penalties until Blake Comeau picked up a pass that was clearly not meant for him and rocketed it past Kari Lehtonen, his first goal in 16 games.
45 seconds later Cammy put another one past Lehtonen giving the Flames their first lead of the game with 3 goals to the Stars’ (or really Benn’s) 2. But seriously, the 2nd period was littered with penalties, 9 penalties were called! Burish, Scott Hannan, Lee Stempniak, and Adam Pardy were all called on penalties after the Cammy goal. Burish almost had a goal with 5:57 to go, but it was waved off as he clearly kicked the puck in the net. However less than a minute later, Mike Ribeiro made it legal with a with a wrister past Kipper. However the Flames did not the Stars hold on to the tie long. Gio had a power play goal at 16:58, and then after Steve Ott went to the penalty box at 18:33, Tanguay scored a goal with less that a minutes to go in the period and power play.
THIRD PERIOD
After the goal and penalty insanity of the 2nd, the 3rd period was a bit more controlled on the Flames side. Giordano had the only penalty of the period which was called at 3:52 for holding Michael Ryder as he was moving the puck down the boards. Which also lead to the lone goal of the period, Philip Larsen managed a sneaky backhand a minute into the man advantage for the Stars (5:24). Loui Eriksson came close to a goal when he slipped the puck from Cammy’s stick, but was denied.
All in all, this outing against the Stars was much more successful than Saturday’s however, the same problems still plague the Flames. The Flames are a team of veterans making the same mistakes rookies make, sloppy puck handing in the neutral zone, dumb penalties, weak defense and almost nonexistent forechecking. If the Flames manage to make it into the playoffs, this style of play will not work against the St. Louis Blues. Keeping it together for all 60 minutes of the game is critical for the Flames to get the much needed 2 points.
Puck drops again Wednesday against the LA Kings at 7:30 in the Dome.
Go Flames Go!