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Flames 4, Blues 3 Recap

Merry Christmas! Down 3-2, the Flames tied the game with just 4.2 seconds left before going on to win in the shootout.

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Faulty Saddledome ice delayed puck drop, but despite the awkward start, the Flames‘ night ended perfectly.

The opponent was a top 5 team in the league. The St. Louis Blues were the favourites coming in to tonight’s game, especially due to the Flames’ recent injuries to Curtis Glencross and Kris Russell, both key players. Still, once the ice was settled the Flames came out flying, and showed off two very impressive powerplays in the first period that ultimately came up fruitless.

This was in stark contrast to the Blues’ own powerplay in the first frame, in which Shattenkirk snapped the puck past Reto Berra only eight seconds in.

Calgary was able to get on board in the second period with a powerplay marker of their own, featuring a through-the-crease pass by Mikael Backlund right to Jiri Hudler‘s stick. Halak got caught trying to slide across, and Hudler was able to bury it home to tie the game.

St. Louis took over almost immediately after. Two goals in 44 seconds by Schwartz and Paajarvi saw the Blues up 3-1, and might have been an indication of just how vast the talent difference is between these two clubs.

There’s just no quit in the Flames, though. Backlund stepped up once again, and Paul Byron dished off a no-look pass from behind the net right onto Mike Cammalleri‘s stick to draw the Flames within one. Then, with fewer than two minutes to go, Hudler drew a penalty on Berglund. Sean Monahan just missed a wide open net – the Flames had a lot of just-misses this game – but Backlund won the ensuing faceoff. The puck got to Hudler, who was having a hard time getting it under control. With the clock ticking down, he dished it cross-ice to Mark Giordano, who buried it past Halak with just 4.2 seconds left in the game.

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This sent the game to one of the most entertaining overtimes you’ll probably see all year, marred only by Backes’ knee-on-knee hit on Matt Stajan with just a minute to go in the extra frame. Stajan was forced to leave the game. The Flames were unable to capitalize on the powerplay, but won in the shootout as Joe Colborne scored the only goal.

Some thoughts:

The Flames get a nice Christmas vacation for the next few days before returning to the Saddledome on December 27 to host their rivals in rebuilding, the Edmonton Oilers.

by Ari Yanover