Calgary Flames edge Colorado Avalanche 3-2 for second straight -NHL Update
It finally looks like that Calgary has begun to get serious in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season as the Flames earned their second straight victory and a third win in the past four over the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, on Thursday night,
December 8, 2011, at the sold-out Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The Calgary defence managed to keep Colorado offensive players out of their defensive end to limit the Avalanche to only 18 shots throughout the 60 minute contest while the Flames had 35 attempts of their own on Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
"We're aware of it, there's no doubt about it," said Giguere, who finished with 32 saves. "They are a team we've been struggling against and I feel it's a team we should be matching up well against. If we use our speed, work their D and put it deep, we should
have a good chance to win against them but we just don't find a way to do that."
After a scoreless opening period in which Calgary failed to capitalise on two straight penalties by Colorado, Matt Duchene entered double figures in his scoring by getting his 10th of the season with less than five minutes remaining in the second
off of a pass by Jan Hejda.
As Calgary was down by one entering the final 20 minutes of regulation, Lee Stempniak potted his eighth of the season on their first power play opportunity of the period which seemed to triggered the Flames scoring as Curtis Glencross made the tie-breaker
less than a minute later on the same added man advantage.
T.J. Galiardi levelled the match nearly midway through the final period which put the Calgary fans in the home stadium on the edge of their seats.
Olli Jokinen fired off the game-winner at the 15:10 mark off an assist by captain, Jarome Iginla, for his eighth of the season.
"It was nice for him to score that goal, especially in front of a lot of family members," Giguere said talking about Jokinen. "No one wants to take a penalty.
Calgary has the next at home against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday while Colorado will also be facing the Oilers a day earlier on Friday.
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