Follow Colin on Twitter!: @ColinDJD
After dropping back to back games, the Calgary Flames have re-instilled their strong play with a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night.
Having a schedule filled with teams who have already locked a playoff position, the Flames are expected to drop more games than win over their remaining five to play. While this is likely a close prediction, if we have learnt anything from this team is to expect the unexpected; they could very well close the season with a few very close games and or wins. Last night, the Flames started on a very good note, securing a two goal lead in the first period with goals from Mike Cammalleri and Kevin Westgarth. Scoring his 25th goal for the 5th time in his career, Cammalleri has been doing quite well since returning from injury. With 42pts in 60 games played this year, Mike has been able to register 16pts in his last 11 games – something I’m sure a few teams could use from their own respect rosters.
Looking to earn himself big dollars next year from the Flames organization, but likely via Free Agency, strong play to finish off the year was expected from Cammalleri. I won’t get into too much debate about Mike and his future contract talk as there is a lot that needs to be digested here, but for now I’ll say one thing – he’s going to push for that 30 goal mark and demand dollars.
Outside of Cammalleri, Westgarth and Glencross would add to their own personal tallies last night, as Kevin found the net for the 4th time of the year, and Curtis his 11th and 12th. In just 33 games this year, Glencross has also been impressive with 23 points. In fact, the veteran forward has registered 7pts in his last six games played. With another year left on his contract, some strong last minute play won’t necessarily benefit Glencross on an individual level, but may impact his potential trade value to other GM’s during the 2014 NHL Draft.
Moving back to the game discussion, I felt that the Flames did a fantastic job defending their lead until the dying minutes of the 3rd period. The Lightning were pressing hard to try and tie the game as it sat 2-1 for nearly an entire 20 minutes of play, but Calgary would not let up. It would be thanks to Curtis Glencross who crashed the net to secure the Flames 3-1 lead, which he followed up with a strong 2nd effort and empty net goal in the dying seconds of the game.
With several young and inexperienced players in the lineup, the thought was that against a Tampa Bay Lightning team, the Flames would have a tough time keeping the game close, let alone winning it. But as mentioned above, this Flames group have surprised us all with their strong team play and ability to outwork their opponents.
Karri Ramo would be peppered with 27 shots in the final 40 minutes of the game and would stop all but one. He too has been impressive for the Flames who are hopeful that this is something he can take with him into future years.
Calgary will be faced with back to back games as they take on the Florida Panthers tonight. The Panthers who sit nearly 10pts under the Flames in the standings have been struggling of late, dropping four straight games and having only two wins in their past ten games played. While I don’t imagine that it will be an easy game for Calgary, it seems all but likely that they extend their current winning streak to two straight games.
There aren’t expected to be any line changes for tonight’s bout, save for Joey MacDonald who will tend the pipes in place of Karri Ramo.
Thanks for reading!