The Calgary Flames won their 4th game in a row tonight for the first time since early January when they strung together 5 straight victories.
Mikka Kiprusoff blanked the Ottawa Senators 2-0, for his 4th shutout of the season and his first since November 30th; when he shutout the Nashville Predators 5-0. Kiprusoff was sharp all night long as he blocked all 33 shots the Sens through at him. Not to mention the 5 different power-plays that Kipper helped shoo away.
It was vintage Kipper, and in a way, vintage (vintage being 2004) Flames hockey.
The Flames were on the board early with Jamal Mayers’ first career goal as a Flame; a nice short-side-cheese snipe show. Due in part to a savvy dump-in and some nice fore-checking from Curtis Glencross, the Flames managed to get ahead early in the first period.
From there, the Flames sort of just hung on and relied on Kipper to make the timely save, or so it seemed. Much like the hockey Flames fans watched in 2004, the Flames clung to the one goal lead like the lives depended on it; and in a way it did. With the Red Wings posting a win earlier in the night, the Flames were aware they needed to hold serve and they did just that in beating the team from the nation’s capital.
It is amazing how much one week can change things. Last Thursday this Flames team was left for dead by almost everybody, including me, and being ripped apart for the moves they made at the trade deadline. Fast forward to tonight and the Flames have reeled off 4 straight victories and sit in a tie for 7th place in the Western Conference standings. After being harped on for not scoring any goals, they go out and pot sixteen goals in four games; something they have not done since October.
It is not as if they beat up on bad teams either. They took down the Devils (4th in the East), the Wild (21-9-3 at home), the Wings (Fighting with the Flames for 8th) and now the Senators (5th in the East).
I am still not convinced that this team is good enough to make any sort of elongated deep run, but they are making believers out of me that the Playoffs might be on the horizon.
Side notes: Kotalik has become invisible since coming over from the Rangers. 1 goal, 1 assist, and a -1. Not exactly getting what we paid for. He also is no longer on the point on the powerplay. This could have been due to the tightness of the game tonight, but maybe someone can help me on this one as I have missed the last couple of games.
Higgins on the other hand has come alive offensively, sort of. He has 3 points in his last 4 games, including 2 goals.
The top line of Iginla, Stajan and Bourque were shutdown tonight for the first time since being brought together. Before tonight, each player had individual 3 games point streaks going.
The Flames travel to Vancouver for a Sunday night tilt against the division leaders before flying home to face the Red Wings on Monday night. Like I have said in previous blogs, each game becomes the biggest game of the year and these two are no exception.
This has been,
Newman on the Flames
Showing posts with label senators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label senators. Show all posts
Friday, March 12, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Flames Can't Contain Sens
The Flames ran into a very hot team and two very hot players tonight in a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Jason Spezza and Brian Elliott led the way for the Sens who have now won 11 of their past 12 games.Spezza, for his part, has 12 points in those last 12 games; 10 of them being goals. Brian Elliott, who has won 9 in a row himself before losing to the Leafs on Saturday, shut the door on the Flames when called upon and helped the Sens climb into a tie for first place in the Northeast division with the Buffalo Sabres.
The Ottawa Senators have to be the surprise team of the Eastern Conference this year as most experts had them pegged them for early golf this season. Not only are they in the playoff picture in the second half of the season, but they are flourishing and climbing higher in the standings each and every day. They are getting steady goaltending from Elliott, and Spezza along with Captain Alffy, have really stepped up since coming back from injury.
The Flames, tonight, suffered the fate of a one dimensional unit; something thought to be a thing of the past when they made the trades this past week. The line of Hagman-Stajan-Iginla played very well collecting all six points for the Flames. Jarome picked up two helpers while the former Leafs provided the clean-up. Hagman fired a laser to the top shelf to open the scoring late in the first, while Stajan, on a beauty pass from Iginla, made a nice move on Elliott to put the Flames back on top early in the second.
It seems this year, more than any other, the Flames have more goals bank in off of their own players than ever before. Case in point: Ottawa’s first tally. The goal, which came 21 seconds after Hagman opened the scoring, banked off of both Jay Bouwmeester and Daymond Langkow to find the back of the net. A powerplay marker on a very unlucky ‘pinball-esque’ goal. Bad luck? Maybe. Yet, the Flames still gave up a goal mere moments after scoring one themselves, which is unacceptable for a team trying to gain ground in the standings.
On the pre-game show on the Fan960, the guys (Rob Kerr, Mike Rogers and Peter Maher) were really talking up Mark Giordano and his great play of late, and who could blame them as he has been playing lights out. Peter Maher went even as far to say that he has an outside shot at being a replacement player for Team Canada should a defenseman go down in the next week; something I do not agree with, but that is for another time. I could not help but notice the instant ‘hex’ or ‘curse’ that this put on him. He made some very poor decisions tonight in his own zone, was a -1, and suffered an injury to boot. Tonight was probably his worst game of the season. I guess Dion did teach him something after all…
The good news for the Flames is that both Detroit and Nashville only gained a point each on the Flames, as both teams lost in extra time. The Flames sit in a tie for 7th still but are stuck in a quagmire in the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture.
Both Dallas and Anaheim are teams that are chasing down the Flames for that spot. The Flames better be ready.
This has been,
Newman on the Flames
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