Photo: Gerry Thomas / Getty Images

An 8th place Calgary Flames lose the much needed two points, as the youngsters from Oil-town dominate the 2nd — scoring four unanswered goals during a complete 2nd period breakdown by the Flames.

The Flames did manage to open up the scoring, as Hannan nailed a shot down the slot minutes in, giving Kolanos his first point as a Calgary Flame’ and producing his second goal of the year.

The Flames are 19-6-2 when scoring first, but a persistent, top Oiler’ line was difficult for Kiprusoff to manage alone. Eberle beat the Flames net-minder on a backhand, in the last few minutes of the 1st, leaving a blank slate going into the 2nd.

But the 2nd was all but pretty. The Flames spent more time fumbling for the puck, while the youngsters flexed their energy. The Flames managed a total of 4 shots through out the 2nd, and the Oilers took full advantage. Butler blocked a Hemsky shot, and paid the price as he left with a lower body injury. He didn’t return.

The first unanswered goal was off a defensive scramble in front of Kipper, that gave Hemsky and the Oilers a 2-1 lead half-way through the 2nd.

A flat Calgary Flames seemed to sit back as the Oilers spent most of the period in on the offensive push. Not long after the Hemsky goal, Belanger and Gagner both scored a mere 20 seconds apart to boost the lead. Karlsson made his home debut in the 3rd period as Kipprusoff was pulled from the wreckage after Smyth’s birthday goal and the final of the 2nd. A quick power play goal by Hall would end the painful game at 6-1.

“We were flat physically, mentally, emotionally… We didn’t have any push tonight,” said Sutter in the post-game.

Saying they now need to respond the right way after such a loss, and the right way to respond is to win the next one.

“It is important that we have everyone playing to their potential,” he said, as he hung the 17 odd offencemen to dry.

The Captain chimed in post-game saying to the media scrum, “All the way around, it was just a terrible game… We were extremely flat, were weren’t sharp at all,” adding, “it was our second worst game of the year.”

Fans are well aware that without the scoring the Flames can’t win games. And to rely on our Vezna net-minder night in and night out only complicates the problem.

To make every game just as important as the last is extremely important for team morale, and if the Flames need a little reminder, they should examine the previous year when the Oilers beat out the Flames for a final playoff spot — all in the last game of the season.

Expect to see Glencross and Smith within the next week playing — a true boost to our roster especially with our loss of Butler tonight.

Calgary Flames set to host Phoenix Coyotes Thursday Feb 23 — an extremely important game — as we chase them for one of the few remaining play off slots.

Miikka Kiprusoff makes one of his 28 stops tonight. Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

More importantly, the win moves the Flames into the playoff picture for the first time this season. Though they are technically tied with the Kings, each team having 65 points, the Flames 28-22-9 record is one win better than LA’s 27-21-11 record. The Flames have also won 2 more games in regulation and OT than the Kings.

Mike Cammalleri scored the lone goal in the game, about 4 minutes into the 3rd period. Cammalleri’s 14th goal of the season can be credited to the hard work of Tom Kostopoulos, who has recently moved from the 4th line to the 2nd line. After a very solid game, Kostopoulos chipped the puck into the Kings end and chased it down to the goal line. He shot the puck towards the net and it bounced off Kings goalie Jonathan Quick right onto the stick of Cammalleri who fired a quick shot into the Kings’ net.

Though the Kings pressed late in the game, their goal scoring woes continued and they were shutout for the 2nd straight game. The Kings, who up until tonight had held down the 8th spot in the Western Conference, have scored the fewest number of goals of any team in the NHL. They have found the back of the net only 124 times this season.

The Flames definitely can’t get complacent now that they find themselves in a playoff spot for the first time since March 2011. They still have a long road ahead to make the post-season and need to win a lot of key games against teams they are competing with in the Western Conference playoff race. On Tuesday, Calgary returns home for a 4-game home stand starting with a game against Edmonton. Then they round-out February with matches against Phoenix, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

March madness will feature 8 of 17 games against the teams the Flames are battling with for a playoff spot. The Flames will play Dallas 3 times, Phoenix and Colorado twice each, and Los Angeles once more. In the 6 seasons since the lockout, it has taken an average of 95 points to make the post season. The Flames currently have 65 points so they will need to win at least 15 of their remaining 23 games to give themselves a chance.

Back in December I had officially given up on the Flames this season. I didn’t think they had what it takes to make the post season. Now, I’m still not sure, but at least there’s hope. What do you think? Will the Flames make the post-season?

Michael Ryder is stopped by Miikka Kiprusoff. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

All-in-all, Ribero played a great game, as did many of his teammates, whose hard forechecking gave the Flames trouble all night. Calgary put in a good effort, but it was ultimately not enough to earn two points.

Dallas opened the scoring halfway through the first period when Adam Burish took a pass from behind the net and lofted it over Miikka Kiprusoff. It was a real floater of a goal, but it counted.

Jarome Iginla evened the score as time wound down in the period by fighting off two Stars players, putting his stick on the ice and going to the net. Alex Tanguay fired the puck onto his stick from the side boards and Iggy tapped it into the Dallas net to make it 1-1.

Dallas out-shot Calgary 12-5 in the second period and ended up eventually getting the go-ahead goal with just over 2 minutes left. Ribero passed the puck to veteran, Steve Ott, who slapped the puck through a screen and past Kipper into the net. Alex Tanguay had a nice chance to tie the game with about 4 minutes to go in the 2nd, but fired his slap shot off the crossbar.

In the third, the Flames had 4 minutes of powerplay after two Dallas players, Trevor Daly and Ott, took near-consecutive penalties. Unfortunately, the Flames couldn’t find the back of the net, but just after the second penalty expired, Mike Cammalleri scored his 13th goal of the season to tie the game again. After several minutes of disjointed play from his teammates, Cammalleri received a beautiful pass from Jay Bouwmeester while skating to the side of the net and roofed the puck behind Kari Lehtonen.

The Calgary Flames were very lucky to get out of this game with one point. It was definitely a bonus because they were out-worked and out-hustled all night. The good news is that the Flames top players keep scoring. Iggy and Cammalleri both scored goals while Jokinen and Tanguay added assists. Jay Bo also added his 19th assist of the season so, while they may not have put in an great team effort, the Flames big guns are still hot. That will continue to be necessary if they hope to make the post-season.

Here are the highlights.

Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images

Every time the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames play some Leafs fan pipes up about how the Leafs “won” the Phaneuf trade. Every time I read this I laugh as it seems that Leafs Nation has not come to fully appreciate the defensive liability that is their Captain… the honourable Dion Phaneuf.

Phaneuf was only minus one in their 5-1 loss to the Flames tonight, but he was instrumental in two of the goals that the Flames scored, which, incidentally enough, is one more than the total number of goals the Leafs scored tonight. Dion was on the ice for the Flames first goal, and didn’t do much to stop Olli Jokinen from feeding the puck to Alex Tanguay in the slot. He was also out of position on the play that allowed Paul Byron to go in on the breakaway, get hauled down, take the penalty shot and score to put the Flames up 3-1.

As any sane Flames fan, who watched the team from 2006 onwards, will tell you that getting rid of Dion is enough to consider any trade a win. Heck, I would have been happy to trade Dion for a bag of pucks and a couple rolls of hockey tape. Not only did we take $6M off our payroll, we got rid of a player that is consistently out of position, is a detriment to the dressing room and is the furthest thing I’d ever think of when I think of “captain” in the NHL.

Can you tell I don’t like the man?

Enough about my Dion prejudice. Besides the fact that Dion sucks, the Flames absolutely dismantled the Maple Leafs tonight. Calgary’s top line was on fire and tallied a total of 8 points on the 3 goals they scored. Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla all scored for the Flames, and Blake Comeay and Byron added a goal apiece in Calgary’s 5-goal outburst.

As always, Miikka Kiprusoff played awesome and gave his team a chance to win. He stopped 41 of 42 shots and ended up with a 0.976 save percentage.

Tyler Bozak had the lone goal for the Leafs, who have now lost 7 straight games against the Flames, dating back to Dec 27, 2002.

It was a fun game to watch, and in case you missed it, here are the highlights:

Alberts vs. Jackman. Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images

The Flames opened the scoring at 17:23 of the first period when Mike Cammalleri scored his 12th goal of the season with a backhander/deflection off the leg that beat Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. They extended the lead early in the 2nd period as Roman Horak took a pass from Lance Bowma and snapped a shot over Luongo’s left shoulder to put Calgary up 2-0.

For a few minutes, the Flames maintained their game, but as time wound down in the 2nd period, the all-to-familiar collapse happened. With just under 3 minutes remaining in the period, Cody Hodgson jumped on a rebound and back-handed the puck past Kiprusoff.

The comeback was completed 8 minutes into the third period thanks to a fortuitous bounce. Dan Hamhuis shot the puck from the point and it ricocheted off Blake Comeau right onto David Booth’s stick. Kipper, who had been playing the point shot, was out of position and Booth had a wide open net to shoot the puck into.

Despite their best efforts, the Canucks couldn’t beat Kiprusoff again and Luongo came up with a big save on Jarome Iginla’s breakaway attempt late in the game. So regulation time ended with a 2-2 deadlock. It looked like there would be a repeat of the Phoenix game when Jay Bouwmeester took a holding penalty 55 seconds into overtime. Luckily for the Flames, Daniel Sedin hauled down Scott Hannan just 8 seconds later, negating the powerplay.

Overtime ended up being a back-and forth event, but solved nothing, so the game went to a shootout. Jokinen and Iggy scored for the Flames and Kipper stopped two of three Canucks shooters to give the Flames an important 2 points.

The win bumps Calgary up to 9th place in the Western Conference, 2 points back from Phoenix and 3 points back from 7th place LA Kings. While this is a much-needed win, the battle doesn’t stop here for the Flames. They have 26 games left in the regular season and will need to get at least 30 more points if they hope to have a chance at making the post-season.

Here are the game highlights

Pond Hockey at the Fairmont Banff Springs. Photo courtes of Banff Lake Louise Tourism

It’s Hockey Day in Canada today, so as soon as you’re finished reading this post you should go grab your skates and your stick and head to your local outdoor rink to play some shinny… unless of course, you live in Vancouver where there isn’t really a winter so this isn’t an option.

CBC came up with the idea of Hockey Day in Canada a few years ago and from its commercial beginnings it’s turning into something fun for a lot of people. My Facebook feed is full of people sharing their pond hockey exploits today, and as soon as I’m finished typing this I’ll be doing the same. If you’re around Confederation Park in Calgary come out to the rink and shoot some pucks with me!

After the sun goes down, the Calgary Flames will face off against divisional rivals, the Vancouver Canucks. The game starts at 8pm and, not surprisingly, will broadcast be on CBC and Fan960.

Calgary has not had a lot of success against the Canucks recently, save for their last game, where Calgary won 3-1. Tonight’s game will be an even bigger challenge as they will be without checking-line centre, Blair Jones, who is out of the lineup for an indefinite amount of time with a fractured ankle. Jones blocked a shot while killing a penalty in OT in Phoenix and was unable to do more than stand in one place for the 15-odd seconds it took for the Coyotes to score the game-winner.

Jones has played very well recently, and has allowed Brent Sutter to have a bit more flexibility putting other centres (namely Olli Jokinen) on the ice against “softer” lines. Jones consistent play might have contributed more to Olli’s point streak than many people realize. In Blair’s place tonight will be Mikael Backlund, who will certainly do his best to match up against the Canucks second line (Booth-Kesler-Burrows).

Here are the rest of the projected lineups.

Projected Flames lineups
Alex Tanguay-Olli Jokinen-Jarome Iginla
Mike Cammalleri-Mikael Backlund-Blake Comeau
Krys Kolanos-Roman Horak-Lance Bouma
Tom Kostopoulos-Matt Stajan-Tim Jackman

Jay Bouwmeester-Chris Butler
Mark Giordano-Scott Hannan
T.J. Brodie-Cory Sarich

Projected Canucks lineups
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Byron Bitz
Alex Burrows-Ryan Kesler-David Booth
Mason Raymond-Manny Malhotra-Jannik Hansen
Maxim Lapierre-Cody Hodgson-Mike Duco

Dan Hamhuis-Kevin Bieksa
Alex Edler-Sami Salo
Andrew Alberts-Aaron Rome

I feel like a broken record after saying this before every game since the beginning of December, but it is another important game for the Flames. At the end of this past week, Calgary ended up slipping down one spot in the Western Conference standings after getting the single point in an OT loss against Phoenix, while watching both the Coyotes and Dallas Stars take 2 points each. Sure, the Flames are only 3 points out of the playoff race, but there are 5 teams in that same race, and four of them are currently ahead of the Flames.

With the good ol’ Flames-Canucks rivalry as strong as ever, it will be an interesting game tonight. Let’s just hope the Flames bring their A game. The Hockey Gods know they need it.

Top line continues to rack in the points, and Jokinen with hat trick tonight.

It was a busy night in the shark tank as milestones, Mcmeal jokes and a cogent team effort solidified Calgary Flames with a 4-3 win over San Jose last night.

It was a dominant solid right from the first 20 minutes, as the Flames consistently played their offensive game — one that seems to be really working at the moment.

Olli Jokinen, better known lately as #McOlli, Olli #McJokinen, #BigMacMan, etc. was the true powerhouse of the evening. Whatever that guy is consuming, he should share the magic with others. Maybe Comeau or Backlund? I’m sure they could use a big-mac boost.

Jokinen, with his 7th all-time career hat trick tonight, scores in the first 20 minutes with a redirection in front off a Butler slapshot leaving the game at 1-0 after the first period. Kipprusoff, who reserved a milestone 300 win in the same building he managed to get his first, looked focused and comfortable tonight. He managed to keep the first period at 1-0 as the Sharks continued their offensive pressure, as he made one phenomenal save after another. And so ‘the scorpion’ was born.

It wouldn’t be long into the second that the Flames would increase their lead to two, as Calgary Flames mounted offensive pressure on the PP, ‘McJokinen’ jammed the garbage goal in for his second of the evening. Proving the flames powerplay is starting to make all the difference between a win and a loss.

Up 2-0 and playing solid defensively, the Flames seemed to lose the pace minutes after scoring, and Shark fans were impatient at this point. Boos echoed the Shark Tank, which clearly fueled the fire of Joe Thorton as he proceeds into the offensive zone, and makes a saucer pass to Logan Couture where he buries a wrist’er for his 23rd of the season. A minute and a half later, the Sharks cycle the puck and with another Thorton pass to the slot, Pavelski capitalizes to tie the game up half way through the second.

After a Sutter time out, the Flames took the rest of the period seriously. They continued to plug the neutral zone, making smart passes, and in all allowed for a full team effort. Iginla ends the period strong by burying his 21st of the year after a beautiful back and forth with Jokinen on the rush. They lead San Jose 3-2 into the third.

Again, the Sharks are persistent and answer the Flames almost immediately in the third — scoring a shady goal 5 seconds in. However, the Flames wouldn’t give into pressure and continued to fight strong battles in the offensive zone. The Flames first line, whose managed over 15 points in the last 3 games, made a statement tonight — the Flames have a No. 1 center, and he just scored his 7th hat trick tonight. Jokinen’s final goal ends the game with a 4-3 final score. And there was no shortage of love for Jokinen and Kipprusoff tonight — both trending on Twitter all evening long.

The Flames continue their road trip onto Phoenix the day after their win, where the milestone man Kipper will take a seat and let Irving show us what he can do, as Karlsson is back in Abbotsford for conditioning.

Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff warms up before an NHL hockey game

As soon as video is available I’ll add it here, until then, here’s Jermain Franklin’s Tweet:

What! Unbelievable save by Kiprusoff! Mike Johnson fittingly named it “The Scorpion” #welldone #Flames on #TSN

— JermainFranklin (@TSNJFranklin) February 9, 2012

It’s hard to put into words the impact that Miikka has had on the Calgary Flames since he came herein 2003. To the dismay of Jarome Iginla loyalists, it could be argued that Kipper has been the team’s most consistent player over the past 8 seasons, and the argument would certainly be strong. Regardless of what you think, it cannot be denied that Kiprusoff has had some amazing moments while wearing a Calgary Flames jersey.

Here is a playlist with some of his recent highlights:

Caption this ______________ (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Calgary hasn’t won a regular season game in Anaheim since 2004 and their losing streak there now extends to 14 games. The last time they beat the Ducks in Anaheim was a 5-1 win on January 19, 2004. Even before that, The Flames were too busy watching Mickey and Minnie to play hockey, and have a dismal (1-13-10) record to show for their last 24 visits to Anaheim.

Tonight, Calgary got off to a very slow start and found themselves down 2-0 before twenty minutes was up. Bobby Ryan and Matt Belesky scored about two minutes apart to put the Ducks ahead in the first period.

In the 2nd, Alex Tanguay got the Flames on the board after a hard-working play by Blair Jones. Olli Jokinen Jones and Tanguay broke in on the Anaheim net and after Jokinen slipped a pass over to Jones, he skated the puck behind the Ducks’ net and found Tanguay open at the edge of the crease. Tanguay made no mistake tapping the puck in from the edge of the blue ice to bring the Flames within one goal.

Shortly afterward, the Flames got into penalty trouble. With Scott Hannan already serving two for interference, Jones gave a two-handed kendo-style chop to Teemu Selanne’s face and received a double minor, which put the Flames down two men for a full 1:36. As the cliché goes, your goaltender needs to be your best penalty killer, and in this case it was true. Miikka Kiprusoff put on a clinic and, with the help of both his posts, kept the puck out of the Flames net for the entire PK.

In the third period, something that I haven’t ever seen in a hockey game happened. While backing through the neutral zone, Luca Sbisa made a move to hit Tim Jackman, but instead of using his shoulder, he smashed the side his helmet into Jackman’s face. Head butting isn’t usually something you see in hockey. That’s generally reserved for sports like soccer (remember Zinedine Zidane’s World Cup head butt?) Regardless, it happened tonight and Sbisa received a 5-minute major for headbutting and a game misconduct.

Though they have had their struggles on the powerplay this season, the Flames capitalized with the man advantage this time. The goal was nice… one of those “feel good” goals that give you hope that your team CAN DO IT. With about 90 seconds remaining in Sbisa’s 5-minute penalty, Jokinen found Jarome Iglinla right on the Ducks’ blue line and fed him a perfect pass to send him in on the breakaway. Iggy raced in on Hiller and rifled a hard wrist shot past him for his 20th goal of the season.

The good news is that the goal gives Iggy his 13th straight 20-goal season. While this may sound impressive to any non-Flames fan, we should keep in mind that Jarome now only needs 10 more goals to also record his 13th straight 30-goal season. Barring any major injury or a serious slump (knock on wood here, folks), I think that’s a pretty safe bet. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think Iggy has a very good chance of catching all-time NHL record holders, Mike Gartner and Jaromir Jagr, who each have 15 consecutive 30-goal seasons. There’s still a lot of hockey between now and then, but I believe Captain Canada has it in him.

The Flames don’t have much time to lick their wounds as they head up to San Jose for a game on Wednesday.

Here are tonight’s highlights:

Jarome Iginla scores on Ray Emery - Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images

Olli Jokinen opened the scoring at 12:24 of the first period with a slap shot blast that went in and out of the net so fast that the refs didn’t even see it go in. The replays showed that it bounced off the back bar of the net, and Olli was eventually credited with his 13th goal of the season. One thing is sure: Olli Jokinen needs to eat more Big Macs.

Chicago tied the game up late in the fist period when Brent Seabrook snapped a shot past Kipper with just 29 seconds left.

The 2nd period wasn’t the greatest 20 minutes in recent Flames memory, but they did manage to increase their offensive production when Jay Bouwmeester fired a rebound past Chicago goalie Ray Emery on the powerplay. It was Jay Bo’s 4th goal of the season and seemed to turn the tide for the Flames.

Though there was some pressure from the Hawks early in the third, Calgary managed to hold off the visitors as Kiprusoff did his usual thing and kept them in the game. Then, with less than 7 minutes remaining, Alex Tanguay sniped a pass to Jarome Iginla who got behind the Chicago defence. Showing great patience on the breakaway, Iggy out-waited Emery, deked to his left and had the whole net to fire his 19th goal of the season into.

The Flames held off Chicago’s late push and ended the game with a 3-1 win and two important points in the standings.

Of note in this game was the return of Krys Kolanos to the NHL. It was certainly a big game for the Calgary native, who hasn’t skated in the NHL since playing 21 games with the Minnesota Wild in 2009. I fear that it will be his last for a while though. Kolanos, who was an AHL All Star this year, seemed out of place, and off-pace in the big league and will most likely find himself back in Abbotsford next week.

The Flames now head out on the road for a 3-game road trip in the sun. They play in Anaheim on Monday, San Jose on Wednesday and Phoenix on Thursday.

Here are your game highlights:

Kudos to the Calgary Flames organization for putting together a touching pre-game ceremony to remember the life of Brad McCrimmon, who lost his life in the plane crash that killed most of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team last September. The Flames welcomed members of Brad’s family to the ‘Dome tonight before the Flames-Red Wings game and invited almost 20,000 Flames fans to pay their respects.

It was a touching ceremony which was made even better by this tribute video:

After the video the team asked for a moment of applause from everyone, instead of a moment of silence. It was an appropriate way to remember a positive and popular player and coach who was referred to as “The Beast” by his teammates.