Rene Bourque leads Calgary Flames to 4-0 shutout win over San Jose Sharks
When the Calgary Flames go on a hot streak, there’s very little that the opposition can do to extinguish them. The San Jose Sharks learned that the hard way on Sunday, 24 October as the
Flames handed them a 4-0 shutout loss.
How it happened
The Flames dominated the game from the start, with Rene Bourque opening the scoring with his fifth goal of the season on the power play at 4:12 of the first period. Niklas Hagman and Brendan
Morrison picked up the assists. A snap shot from Calgary captain Jarome Iginla at 6:01 of the first period resulted in the Flames’ second goal of the game. The assists came from Alex Tanguay and Ian White.
At 8:36 of the first period, Craig Conroy scored his second goal of the season to give the Flames a 3-0 lead, with the assists coming from Stefan Meyer and Tim Jackman. Bourque scored
his second goal of the game on a slap shot at 11:47 of the first. Tanguay earned his second assist on the goal, while Matt Stajan added the other assist.
There was no further scoring in the game, and Bourque’s second tally stood up as the game-winner. The left-winger has been highly productive for the Flames lately, scoring a trio of goals
in Calgary’s 6-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, 22 October.
Goaltender Miika Kiprusoff stopped all of the 27 shots he faced from the Sharks, while San Jose required the use of both members of their goaltending tandem in the loss. Antero Niitymaki
made 24 saves on 25 shots, while Antti Niemi saved only two of five shots.
What they're saying
Flames’ head coach Brent Sutter was happy with his team’s performance, stating that his team made the most of their scoring chances.
“Whether we scored or not, we were playing well,” Sutter said. “We were able to have the emotion level we wanted to have. We took advantage of the opportunities and made the most of them.”
Bourque, who scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season in the game, was content with Calgary’s efforts as well.
“Anytime you’re scoring, you want to have the puck on your stick,” Bourque said. “I feel like I could make plays happen right now. We’re just getting the puck deep and coming up the middle
of the ice with speed. It seems to be pushing the ‘D’ back and it's giving us a lot of room and a lot of time with the puck to find other guys open.”
Sharks head coach Todd McLellan was less than satisfied with his team’s lack of effort in the game, as they failed to score any goals.
“In the first period, there probably could have been two pucks on the ice and we wouldn’t have had either one of them,” McLellan said. “We weren’t playing the way we’re supposed to play
as far as the system went, and it was very disappointing.”
Calgary returns to action against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, 26 October, while San Jose takes on the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, 27 October.
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