Now that I’m not melting from my sickness, I figure I can supply you with an awesome game recap.
What an odd time to drop the puck, 4pm, really confused me and made it hard for me to eat dinner before the game. However the match up between the Calgary Flames and the Minnesota Wild was the battle of the injuries. With many big names for the Flames out, and the Wild missing their starting and back up goalies as well as their big hitter, Cal Clutterbuck, it became who could remain uninjured for all 60 minutes really. Calgary Flames went into this with three wins in a row, and managed to make it 4, while the Wild have continued their fall from the insane start they had.
Jarome Iginla started off the game with a goal at 9:31, making it the 11th game in a row the Flames made it up on the scoreboard first. In addition to helping the Flames move ahead of the Wild, Iginla moved ahead on the All Time Goal lists. His 513th goal means he is now number 35 on the list, tied with Jeremy Roenick. Guillaume Desbiens started off the physical game with a fight at 9:22 against Kassien. Desbiens isn’t exactly the biggest guy or most skilled fighter (this being only his second NHL fight) and not surprisingly got his butt handed to him by the much larger and stronger Matt Kassian. The only penalty (outside the roughing calls) in the 1st was a Too Many Men penalty on the Flames.
In the second period, the Flames did not have the same spark they had in the first. Much of the period was spent chasing the puck around the ice. With Miikka Kiprusoff making very few saves, but the couple he needed to make were clutch.
However the teams came out gunning for a goal because at 18:19, Flames rookie Sven Bärtschi powered the puck past Matt Hackett for his first NHL goal. And then the Wild responded at 17:50 with a goal by Erik Christensen, making their 2-0 lead very short. The goal really pushed the Wild’s game to a new level with a second goal by Christensen at 15:30. At 9:43 Curtis Glencross extends his goal streak to 7 games with a goal to give the Flames the lead. This give him 25 goals for the season, a career high, in addition to the longest goal streak in the NHL this season. The longest Flames goal streak is 8 games and held by Kent Nilsson and Gary Roberts. 5:18 was a turning point for the relatively unproductive Olli Jokinen, who knocked the puck in after a sweet 2 on 1 pass from David Moss. Devin Setoguchi manages to get the Wild within 1 goal at 1:04 but it wasn’t enough as the Flames managed to hold them off for the last 1:04.
The Flames now head home for a game on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks with the puck dropping at 7:30pm.
Go Flames Go!