Calgary Flames burns Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3, rising to 5th and throwing Jackets to 12th place
Calgary’s continuous ups and downs in the Western Conference makes it one of the most exciting teams to watch and it certainly was thrilling to watch it play against Columbus Blue Jackets in a nail biting matchup, which went down at the Scotiabank Saddledome
in Calgary, Alberta, where fans witnessed Calgary winning by 4-3.
Miikka Kiprusoff, who has been Calgary’s guardian, has been playing exceptionally well, making key saves at the right moments and letting the offensive end concentrate on getting the puck in on the opposite net.
He made history in the game, becoming the first goalie in over 25 years to stop two penalty shots in one night.
Had Columbus scored on those penalties, Calgary would have surely lost looking at the score. Detroit's Corrado Micalef was the last to make the feat in 1986.
"That's definitely not history you want to be a part of", Calvert said. "He got me on that one. I was trying to go shelf and trying to get him to move, but he read it pretty good and stayed in one spot and I didn't have much to shoot at."
The first came when Calgary was up 4-2 in the second period as Mark Giordano was blamed for hooking Matt Calvert on a breakaway.
Antoine Vermette had the second chance late in the final period and at a very crucial moment at which he could have tied the game and forced overtime but to Columbus’s demise, he was rejected by Kiprusoff.
The crowd went wild at both moments. Fans could be heard chanting “Kipper, Kipper” in his admiration. In the Flames’ locker room, Kiprusoff was in the spotlight and he certainly deserved to be.
"He gives us a chance to win every night", said Olli Jokinen, who picked up a goal and an assist himself. "You can see how focused he is every day. He's the biggest reason we've been winning games".
It looks like Blue Jackets is just having some dreaded luck with the penalty shots, missing four attempts in this week alone.
Kiprusoff made a total of 37 crucial saves for Calgary, while Steven Mason struggled to make 24.
Craig Rivet got a quick go ahead for Columbus, scoring the game’s first goal and his second of the season within the starting 4 minutes to take an early lead.
However, Calgary’s Olli Jokinen and Jarome Iginla, both, scored, 44 seconds apart, a few minutes later overtaking the lead to bring the score to 2-1 at the end of the first phase.
Antoine Vermette tried to spark a comeback for Blue Jackets by scoring at 1:53 of the second to tie the game but he sadly faced the same situation his teammate did as Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross both answered at the other end on power-plays, extending
the lead to 4-2.
The final period only saw Jan Hejda scoring to minimise the lead to one with 14 minutes left, but was unable to come up with anymore, losing the match.
This loss lengthened Jackets’ losing streak to four consecutive, throwing them down to 12th place in the Western Conference with 69 points.
Calgary rose up to 5th place with 77 points, a point less than Chicago for 4th and 1 point more than LA at 6th place.
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