Stasny scores on Kipper | Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
As the masters of their own destiny, the Calgary Flames don’t seem to be doing much with their opportunities. 2 days after losing in the shootout to the NHL’s worst team, they had a chance to put themselves back into the thick of the Western Conference playoff race in Colorado. Unfortunately they didn’t have what it took and ended up losing 2-1 in overtime.
Avs winger David Jones capitalized on a rebound after Paul Stastny drove to the net and banked the OT winner in off Miikka Kiprusoff’s skate. Paul Stastny also scored for Colorado midway through the first period to even the game at 1-1.
Calgary opened the scoring with an early goal from Matt Stajan. Stajan took advantage of a lucky bounce and found the puck on his stick at the side of the net. He made no mistake as he slipped the puck in under Avs goalie Simeon Varlomov to give the Flames the lead.
Of note in the game was a big hit on Cory Sarich that sent him to the dressing room. Perhaps it’s a bit of karma coming back to bite him, but it looked like Sarich suffered a bit of a concussion on the huge open-ice collision with David Jones.
The single point doesn’t really help the Flames. After the loss, here’s what the race for 7th & 8th in the west looks like:
As you can see, the Flames need to gain some ground if they hope to be present in the post season instead of missing the playoffs for the 3rd straight season. San Jose and LA are currently in the middle of a 1-1 second period tie, and one of them will end up with 84 points and 8th place in the west before the night is through.
It’s crunch time in Calgary so here’s to hoping that the Flames will show up with some goals in their back pockets in Minnesota on Thursday.
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.
