On Thursday Oct. 28, I went to the Calgary Flames vs. Colorado Avalanches game. This game was Craig Conroy’s 1,000th game and he received a cheque for this milestone. He donated it to a charity organization called Conroy Charities, which funds sports programs for children.
Both teams started on the ice with rigor and force. Both the Flames and Avalanche were pushing against each other, trying to get a goal in. There was an very good power play by the Flames at 13:14 where Hagman performed a powerful slapshot, the first goal for the Flames, straight into the net with no opposition from the goalie Peter Budaj. Assists were done by Mark Giordano and Olli Jokinen. Just a minute after, Avs player Chris Stewart deflected a shot into the flames net, tieing the score to 1-1. He was assisted by Paul Statsny and Milan Hejduk. The two sides battled on, with the Flames constantly going for shots. Near the last quarter of the first period, the Flames went for another goal but Statsny distracted the puck, which was recieved by Stefan Meyers and went to Cory Sarich who assists Tim Jackman and scoring a 2-1 lead with a wrist shot. The Avs make several attempts on goal but cannot tie the game before the 2 period.
In the second period, the Flames took some intense pressure from the Avs as several shots were made on net. Flames forward Matt Stajan made an slap shot on net with assists from Iginla and Bouwmeester, but Budaj successfull blocked it. Avs players Quincey, Hejduk and Duchene all made shots on the Flames, all saved by Karlsson. Colorado made a lot of shots on goal in the 2nd period with two more amazing goals from Chris Stewart at 16:15 and 16:44. Assists were made by O’Reilly, Duchene and Cuminskey. Calgary came out of the second period with a 4-3 lead with another great shot from Jokinen at 18:29 with assists from Bourque and Hagman.
In the third period, Calgary was losing some of its momentum. Most of the time, the Flames were defending themselves against tough opposition from the Avs. Just at 18:06 Brandon Yip performed a backhand into the net with assists from O’Reilly and R. Wilson. Another shot was made by Galiardi at 13:56 bringing Colorado into a lead of 5-4. The Avalanches constantly held the Flames back, preventing any shots. Finally, Tanguay tied the game at 5-5 by scoring at the Avs net at 5:35 with assists from Stajan. There are less than three minutes left in the game and the Flames were getting little to no chances at net. Daniel Winnik from the Avs finally shot at 2:21 with assists from O’Reilly and Cumiskey taking the Avs into a lead of 6-5. The Flames constantly try to get a shot in but nothing worked. In the last minute of the game, the Flames were desperate. Some players played with a lot of intensity but in the end, the Flames lost their three game winning streak.
Overall, the flames coach Brent Sutter was pretty disappointed in the flames performance that night. He said, “Our best players, outside of Olli, weren’t very good and that’s the bottom of the line. You give up six goals in the NHL, you’re not going to win very many games. When you’ve got a 3-1 lead in your own building, you nail it down. Good teams, that’s what they do.” The scorers for the flames were Niklas Hagman, Tim Jackman, Matt Stajan, Olli Jokinen, and Alex Tanguay. The goalies were Henrik Karlson for the Flames and Peter Budaj for the Avalanches. The Avalanches didn’t have Craig Anderson due to a knee injury. The star players were Chris Stewart, Olli Jokinen and Ryan O’Reilly.
A big thanks goes to Kids Up Front for providing these tickets.