The Calgary Flames fall to the Dallas Stars in what should have been the triumphant return of Mike Cammalleri after missing 9 games with a mysterious upper body injury. Going into this game, the were Stars 1-3-0 in the last 4 games, but they managed to pull it together for a 4-1 win. This also makes 7 games in which Olli Jokinen failed to register a point.
Before the puck dropped, Ralph Strangis, the Dallas Stars play by play voice, came out to honor former Dallas Star and Lokamotiv defensemen Karlis Skrastins who died in the plane crash. Strangiss quoted Radek Dvorak, “he was a beautiful guy”.
FIRST PERIOD
Stars kicked off the goal scoring quickly as Jamie Benn scores at 01:37 in the first as he got the puck past Jokinen and Mikka Kiprusoff. Flames try to answer back with Blake Comeau as he rockets the puck and hits the post, but fails to get the puck in the net.
Jay Bouwemeester routinely passed the puck to no one deep in the corner and ends up with a turn over that Flames struggle to recover from. Lee Stempniak gets into it with Steve Ott at the Stars bench but is broken up and ends with Dallas getting caught with too many men on the ice. Mark Giordano started the power play with a one timer to Kari Lehtonen but the Flames only managed to get one more shot on goal during their man advantage as the Stars managed to clear the puck out of the zone. Michael Ryder with 12:43 left, scores from the faceoff circle. After scoring the first goal, Benn draws a penalty from Comeau as he was tripped with 10:35 left in the first.
Cammy scores with 7:33 after a flurry of shots on Lehtonen. Cammy beat Lehtonen as he committed to blocking a shot from Babchuk that turned in to a pass to Cammy. Jokinen was called for high sticking at 16:44 and was escorted to the penalty box as Steve Ott and a few Flames exchange words. Flames managed to kill off the penalty off sending the puck deep more than once, which really helped chew up time. Once the Stars were back to full strength, Chris Butler lost control of the puck and Kipper had to stop the puck to prevent Mike Ribeiro’s dribbler going in with 2.9 to go.
SECOND PERIOD
At 1:03 Benn was called for tripping, however Flames were unable to capitalize on the man advantage for the second time in the game . After Dallas broke out on a failed 3 on 2 attempt (Eric Nystrom over passed the puck), Flames gain control of the puck and let lose a handful of shots on Lehtonen that ended as Anton Babchuk was called for offsides.
After the faceoff, Sheldon Souray moves the puck down ice with a clear shot on net that does not result in a goal and ends up chasing the puck back down the ice as the Flames gained control. Control of the puck doesn’t last long as Ott had a break away with 5:30 left and stopped by Kipper. Curtis Glencross plopped down on the Flames bench after a icing call, so the ref had to go retrieve him, giving the Flames an extra few second to recover.
How do I explain that scruff at the end of the 2nd with 10.8 seconds to go? In total, 14:00 of PIM were handed out. Souray and Joks jabbed at each other, Iginla jumped in and then everyone else on the ice took to exchanging shoves. All 10 players were part of the rumble. Giordano was called for two minutes for roughing and was send to the locker room. Souray was called for a 2 minute minor as well and was sent to the locker room as Brendan Morrow served his penalty. Jarome Iginla to the box for 2 minutes on a roughing call along with Ribeiro. Flames end up with a man advantage.
As the period came to a close, two more penalties were handed out to Cammy and Adam Burish. They each got two mintues, Cammy for slashing and Burish for cross checking.
THIRD PERIOD
The third period started with the Flames powerplay carrying over from the 2nd which did not lead to any goals for the Flames. Scott Hannan hopping off the ice and was clipped by the puck, Dallas fans called for a penalty of too many men, but no call was made. Stars started setting up traffic in front of Kipper, but Kipper managed to hold strong through half the period and that’s where things started to get rough.
The faceoff at 8:12 had Fiddler breaking Alex Tanguay’s stick, followed by the Flames getting a man advantage as Burish hits Tanguay in the head and is called roughing at 12:12. For the fourth and final time, the Flames are a man up on the Stars and manage not to pick up any goals.
Benn strips Hannan of the puck as Stars gain full strength however the Stars do not do anything with the puck until 16:27 when Benn snaps one past Kipper to make it 3-1. With two minutes to go, Kipper leave the net for an extra attacker, Iginla takes a shot but breaks his stick, and Morrow makes it 4-1 with less than 90 seconds to go.
Clearly not the ending the Flames were looking for as they so desperately need points if they want to see the playoffs this season.
Puck drops again Monday at home against the Stars one more time.
Go Flames Go!