Photo Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
After a huge win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, the Calgary Flames won their fourth consecutive home game last night against the San Jose Sharks.
The first period was tight as both teams worked hard to control the puck. The Flames defense kept up with the San Jose offense until the Sharks began to look a little unstable later in the period. Lee Stempniak drop-passed the puck to Mikael Backlund, who then carried the puck up to the net to take a shot but couldn’t capitalize. Stempniak picked up the rebound and netted the first goal of the game. The Flames were up 1-0 after the first.
The second period was a lot of back and forth play as the Sharks looked more steady on their skates. Mark Giordano put the Flames up by two with a hard slapper at the Sharks net. It was 2-0 Flames after the second period.
The last frame saw more pressure from the San Jose players as Eriah Hayes potted his first NHL goal to break the shutout. But the Flames answered back with two more goals from Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler to end this game in regulation with a score of 4-1 for the Calgary Flames.
Dennis Wideman had two assists and Ben Street had two shots on net, while Ladislav Smid clocked almost 17 minutes of ice time and earned himeself an assist and Kris Russell garnered three shots on net with over 19 minutes on ice.
No goalies were pulled, no one was hurt and had to leave the game, and there was nothing extraordinary about this game except that it was good old-fashioned hockey which saw the Flames win in regulation.
My 1 Star
With over 18 minutes of play time, physical play improving, and a great skating ability, Lance Bouma gets my one star tonight because of his hustle, his positive attitude, and his work ethic. Not only does he use his body to push to the net while putting pressure on the opposition, he uses his space well and won’t allow the other teams to push him around. As an added bonus to his progressive play, Bouma has scored some great goals lately, but just not in last night’s game against the Sharks.
With 27 saves last night against the Sharks, Karri Ramo explained it perfectly when he said, “The main thing is we kept working and nobody gave up when things were bad.”
Because we, as Flames fans, haven’t seen a lot of games won in the past few months, I was very impressed with the effort and spirit of the guys in the past few games. They held their heads up in the face of controversy, they showed up to every game, and they just won’t quit – and it’s finally paying off!
Soak this in, Flames fans, and prepare for Saturday when the Flames take on the Wild in hopes of one more home win before they take off on a road trip.
Go Flames Go!