Calgary Flames See Playoffs Slipping Away In Shoot Out Loss Against Last Place Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets wrapped up their Western Canada roadtrip against the Calgary Flames tonight. The Flames went into the game with 5 consecutive wins at home, and 6 out of 8 at home, with a loss to Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton Friday night. CBJ is coming off a loss against the Vancouver Canucks last night, in back to back games. However it was the Jackets who walked away with two points at the end of this game.
Iron man Jay Bouwmeester was the first one to really get a clear shot on net, with a loud ping of the puck on the post, however it didn’t exactly spark much for the Flames. The puck remained in transit for much of the first 5 minutes, turn over and block shots kept the puck from nearing the goal.
Two solid shots on Miikka Kiprusoff lead to a hooking call on Mark Giordano at 12:33. Flames managed to kill the penalty off with no problem. The Jackets have not had a power play goal since the first of the month with Nikita Nikitin scoring the goal against the Colorado Avalanche.
Nikita Nikitin shot a one timer from the point with 6:57 left in the first and picks up his 5th goal. Immediately following the goal, Guillaume Desbiens gets into a scrum with Jared Boll. At 5:23, the play came to a halt on as Curtis Sanford was unable to get up off the ice after covering the puck. Steve Mason came in after thinking he was gettting the night off. Flames managed to pick up a power play as John Moore decided to hook at 16:35. In the final seconds of the period, Mason ended up on his back, however the Flames could not capitalize on the downed goalie as the clock ran out before they could get the puck to the front of the net.
At the start of the second, the Jackets managed to set up a few on timers against Kipper, who stopped them with scary skills. At 14:19 the game was paused as Mason took a stick to the mask, prior to that he lost his stick behind the net. The very next play, Olli Jokinen knocked into Mason’s head as Colton Gillies hit him, who stayed down for some time before sitting up. No penalty was called. Alex Tanguay took a shot to the head by Jared Boll after the next face off. Tanguay was escorted off the ice and Jarome Iginla skate in for some retribution for hitting Tanguay in the head with his elbow.
Calgary was unable to do any thign with the powerplay, and at 10:45, Blake Comeau was escorted off the ice as he couldn’t put weight on his one foot, however, a few shifts later, Comeau returned to the ice. Despite dominating the first half of the second period (12 SOG vs 1 SOG), the Flames could not find the back of the net for a goal or two. With 4:18 to go, Jack Johnson was called for hooking but the Jackets managed to kill off the penalty with no problem. In the last 90 seconds of the period, the Jackets managed to gain some control of the puck keeping the puck deep.
Despite the fact the Flames lead the Jackets 23 to 8, the Jackets entered the 3rd period up a goal and with the shutout. The return of Tanguay to the bench is a great sigh of relief to the injury rattled team. Roughly 3 minutes into the period, 6 Jackets took the ice and a penalty was called for too many men. At 3:45, Curtis Glencross was called for slashing, bringing the man advantage down to a 4 on 4 for 45 seconds and then a Jackets power play which did not garner any goals for the Jackets. Almost immediately Glencross was back in the box for high sticking, hitting Derek Dorsett in the face with his stick. Dorsett also ended up in the box for 2 minutes as he was called for interference. Be on the look out for a Shanhan decision on Glencross’s penalty.
James Wisniewski was taken out at 11:59 as the puck deflected up in his face off his own stick. The interference and high stick penalties were killed off. At 8:34 Matt Stajan finally got the Flames up on the score board with a wrist shot. With a bit of back and forth, and shots on goal for both teams, the 3rd period came to a quick close with minimal stoppage of play. At 25.4 Stajan tried to slide the puck past Mason, but was denied when Mason smothered it.
Regulation came to an end, with each team picking up a point. Despite Iginla’s sprint down ice after the puck, he couldn’t get a shot off and the puck ended up back down in front of Kipper. Flames managed to keep the puck out of the net and so did the Jackets, so it was off to the shoot out to lose:
Rick Nash faced Kipper first (50% this season): Missed
Tanguay (14.3% this seaons): Missed
Mark Letestu (50%): Missed
Jokenin (42.9%): Missed
Johnson (0%): Missed
Glencross (0%): Missed
Cam Atkinson (0%, first NHL shootout): Scored
Iginla (33.3%): Missed
Go Flames Go!