The Calgary Flames winning streak keeps on rolling. Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 34 of 35 shots, and the Flames scored 3 times to beat the Nashville Predators and win their 3rd straight game. The game was one of the most complete games they’ve played all season, and they dominated the Preds for most of regulation.
Curtis Glencross opened the scoring at 10:14 of the first period with a bizzare goal. His shot from the side of the net went off Shea Weber’s stick and arced up over Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne. It bounced on the goal line, and into the net, despite Chris Mueller’s best effort to swat it out.
David Legwand tied the game midway through the 2nd period with a wrist shot that beat Miikka Kiprusoff but the lead didn’t last long. On one of their three 2nd period powerplays, Jarome Iginla capitalized on a great pass from Matt Stajan to put the Flames up 2-1. Stajan found Iginla who was all alone at the side of the Preds net, and Jarome had about 3 feet of empty net to shoot at.
The Flames killed off 2 straight penalties at the end of the second period and beginning of the third period before Brendan Morrison scored a powerplay goal to go up 3-1. Morrison’s goal was the cap on a beautiful passing play that started with Mark Giordano driving down low to the side of the net. As he drew the defenders to the left side of the net (while Jarome Iginla ran a little traffic right in front of Rinne) Gio fed the puck to Alex Tanguay in front of the net. Rather than shoot, Tanguay deftly slipped the puck over to Morrison at the right side of the net, which was wiiiiiide open. Morrison wasted no time putting the puck behind Rinne to give the Flames a 2 goal lead and a little insurance with just under six minutes left.
Other than the fact that the Calgary Flames put in a full 60-minute effort tonight, the most amazing thing was how they played with the man advantage. Powerplay proficiency is one part of their game that has been sorely lacking this season, but that was not evident in any of their powerplay attempts in the last 2 periods. They scored 2 PP goals and had numerous other great chances that were turned aside by Rinne. My first thought was that the Preds have a really bad PK unit, but the stats show that they have the 5th best PK in the NHL. Maybe they were tired after playing back-to-back games, but the Flames actually had game on the powerplay tonight, and scored 2 nice goals with it.
The Flames next game is on Wednesday vs St. Louis, and it will be their last game before the All Star break.
Greg is the founder of Red Mile Blog has been following the Flames through good times and bad since they arrived in Calgary in the early 80s. He has written hundreds of articles on the Flames since 2005 and considers himself an expert on hockey inconsistency and frustration. He shoots right and usually plays defence, but has been known to jump up in the rush. He is a 2-time CAHL men's league champion and knows the sweet taste of beer from a Cup.
