NHL Thursday night Match Analysis: Calgary Flames vs. Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 OT
Calgary and Tampa Bay have a long history of rivalry ever since they fought off in the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, which makes their matchups ever more exciting. Thursday night, December 15, 2011, was no exception, as both teams battled hard in the showdown, but Lightning managed to edge Flames, 5-4, in an intense overtime extension at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, United States.
Tampa Bay outshot Calgary throughout the 60 minute contest as Miikka Kiprusoff faced 34 shots on his net, out of which he managed to block 29, falling short on five, while Mathieu Garon deflected 23 of 27 shots.
Steven Stamkos was the go to man for Tampa Bay as he scored in the opening 30 seconds of overtime, that was his as well as the team's first attempt on Calgary's net, which went in without the Flames making even a single shot on Lightning's, certainly disappointing for Calgary.
"We know in order to win we can't be blowing two-goal leads in the third period," Stamkos said after losing two straight to third period comebacks. "In the end, we stuck with it. We made sure we got the one point at least, and then it was nice getting the two points in the end."
The Lightning are currently at the 13th position in the Eastern Conference, certainly not where they want to be early in the season, since it will become harder and harder to move up as the season progresses.
Calgary is doing a little better with 31 points at the 11th spot in the Western Conference and is also looking towards making it big this time around, but the way they have been playing so far, it does not look like they are headed in that direction anytime soon.
Teddy Purcell was the one to inaugurate the scoring in the match with his sixth of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season on an early power play opportunity, assisted by Steve Downie and Dominic Moore.
Matt Stajan followed up for Calgary by getting his first goal of the season and the team's first of the night to equalise the contest, shooting it in through Garon with 33 seconds remaining in the opening 20 minutes.
Flames veteran captain and top forward, Jarome Iginla, came out strong in the second period by scoring his 12th in the opening two minutes to give Calgary a lead to work on, but they failed to maintain it as Tom Pyatt, Ryan Malone and Nate Thompson added three back-to-back goals after the halfway mark to take a commanding 4-2 lead, entering the final period of regulation.
After winning three straight, Calgary has now lost two in a row, putting them in a frustrating position.
"We can't keep throwing these points away," Flames' defenseman, Derek Smith, said. "We're beating ourselves, and if we want to keep climbing the standings we can't let this happen again."
Calgary managed to come back and rebound by scoring two in the third period as Rene Bourque added his 10th, 58 seconds in and Olli Jokinen capitalised on the round's only power play, with Victor Hedman being penalised for slashing at the 15:06 mark.
Tampa Bay has the next on the road against Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, while Calgary Flames will be facing Florida Panthers on Friday.
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