Brodie and Perry in front of Irving | Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images
The loss was Calgary’s 15th straight at the Honda Centre, dating back to a time when Anaheim’s team was still called the “Mighty Ducks” and had a logo that looked like Donald Duck.
The Flames came out to play in the first period, and got on the scoreboard early. On their 2nd powerplay to start the game, Curtis Glencross was in the corner and took a pass from Olli Jokinen, who was out at the point. Glencross fired it along the goal line towards the net and banked it in off Jonas Hiller for his 21st goal of the season.
About three minutes later Teemu Selanne and Bobby Ryan hooked up for a beautiful 2-on-1 goal to tie the game.
The game was very physical and the first 10 minutes of the game featured two fights. Tom Kostopolous took on Luca Sbisa after he delivered a head-shot hit on Tim Jackman and Jarome Iginla fought Francois Beauchemin a few minutes later. The fights didn’t really swing momentum either way.
The second twenty minutes continued to be the bane of the Calgary Flames existence and they barely showed up on the ice in the 2nd period for the 11th consecutive game. Anaheim took the lead at 7:41 when Cory Perry converted on a nice feed from Getzlaf and tipped in his 31st goal of the season.
The only thing that kept the Flames in the game for the rest of the period was their goalie. Instead of the usual acrobatics by Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary was backstopped by a very solid Leland Irving, who did his best to keep it close. Irving was the star of the game for the Flames made a very strong case to replace Henrik Karlsson as the team’s #2 goalie.
The third period started with a lot of play in Anaheim’s end, and Calgary ended up capitalizing about 4 minutes in. Mike Cammalleri drove to the net and shot a back-hander on Hiller. His shot was stopped, but Alex Tanguay was right on the doorstep and pulled the rebound around the Ducks’ goalie and put it in the net.
Just when Flames fans thought we had another overtime coming, Scott Hannan found himself way out of position while defending a 2-on-2 and let Getzlaf wind up with a monster of a slap shot that beat Irving.
The win moves Anaheim up into 12th place in the west, with 66 points. Calgary remains stagnant at #11, with 69 points. The Dallas Stars, who currently hold down 8th in the west, got an easy 2-0 win over a weak Edmonton Oilers team tonight. Dallas now has a 4-point lead over the Flames with 17 games remaining.
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.
