Calgary Flames faces a rare shutout against Phoenix Coyotes 3-0 – NHL Updates
Calgary Flames was stunned on Thursday night at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, where they were shut out by Phoenix Coyotes by 3-0, something they don’t experience very often, a first since January when being locked down by Minnesota by 6-0.
Ilya Bryzgalov made 39 quick deflections, making that his sixth shutout of the season and 22nd of his career.
Phoenix has won only two of its past eight games, bringing its three-game home stand to a close with a 2-1 record and now taking off for a four-game road trip where they go to Southern California first to face Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
This became Flames’ fourth lock down of the season, snapping a three-game winning streak and losing on the second game in its past 12, its now going to return back home for three games, facing conference leaders, Vancouver Canucks, on Saturday and again
Coyotes on Tuesday.
Henrik Karlsson was in tonight for goalie, Miikka Kiprusoff, making 29 saves that weren’t enough to keep Coyotes down.
Both teams are now tied with Chicago for fourth place in the highly competitive Western Conference with 81 points.
Phoenix struggled to penetrate Calgary during the first period when they were given two power-play opportunities as Mark Giordano and Olli Jokinen were sent out for two minutes each.
After a scoring drought in the first 20 minutes, rookie, Brett MacLean, scored his second of the season in front of a 13,003 domestic crowd early on in the next period.
He scored his first back in December when playing against Los Angeles Kings.
Flames had 19 attempts on Bryzgalov in this period alone but could make nothing out of them.
Eric Belanger extended the lead to 2-0 within five minutes of the third period with captain, Shane Doan, insuring the match with an empty netter at the 18:04 mark.
It was just bad luck for Calgary. Though playing very well, it was just one of those nights for Bryzgalov.
Phoenix still has some tough competition upcoming where it’ll have to face Calgary again, along with Canucks and third placed San Jose Sharks three times in a six-game period.
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