Dark night in the city of light

“We needed our power play to win the game for us, and our penalty killing got scored on for the winning goal. It’s a tough loss. If we did a couple of things better, we could have won the game.” – Brent Sutter

The Calgary Flames completed their season-long six-game road swing across the continent exactly the way they wanted to – by playing a complete, poised and patient game, eliminating own-zone mistakes, keeping the opposition attackers to the outside lanes and limiting the number of quality scoring chances. Unfortunately, they failed to acquire the most important aspect on their checklist – a victory. The Los Angeles Kings, buoyed by the solid, often spectacular, goaltending of Jonathan Quick and timely tallies by Scott Parse and Jarret Stoll nipped the surging Flames 2-1 in a quick-paced, energetic affair in Tinseltown.

Two breakdowns led to the Kings goals. Parse was able to find an outside lane on Flame defender Adam Pardy and blew past the rearguard, cut sharply through the slot and drew Kiprusoff toward him. With Kipper out of sync and out of step, Parse pivoted past the sprawled netminder and tucked the puck into the gapping cage.

On Stoll’s winner, Jay Bouwmeester drifted out of the slot momentarily to check Dustin Brown and Stoll cruised into the open space vacated by the rugged rearguard and deftly deflected a cross-slot pass from Justin Williams past Kiprusoff for the decisive dent in the outcome.

The Kings Winning Ways: The Kings were able eke out the narrow decision by capitalizing on the few scoring opportunities they were offered and neutralizing Jarome Iginla, the man who single-handedly orchestrated a Calgary victory the last time the two clubs tangled. Los Angeles kept the Iginla under wraps all evening long, pushing the Calgary captain to the outside, cutting off his passing lanes and making certain he wasn’t able to become involved physically. Iginla managed four shots on goal, but all were from a distance and easily accessible and stoppable by the aptly named Quick.

The Flames Losing Ledger: Bad bounces, clanging goalposts and crease crashing calamities aside, the Flames lost this battle because of two deficiencies that have plagued the club throughout the impressive four win-two loss highway hiatus.

The Flames went 0-4 on the powerplay, including two extra man opportunities in the third period when they were trailing by a single goal. The Kings, on the other hand, were able to capitalize on one of their three powerplay chances, netting the winning goal while Craig Conroy was serving a two-minute penance for tripping. Calgary failed to score a powerplay marker in each of the final three games on the trip and went a combined 3-19 over the half-dozen games away from the Saddledome.

All season long, the team has struggled in the face-off circle at both ends of the rink. In last night’s loss, the Flames won only 41% of the draws in the game. No loss was more crucial than the last puck drop of the game. With the Kipper perched on the pine and less than a minute remaining, Olli Jokinen lost a key face-off in the Kings zone and the club was unable to regain possession of the puck. The Kings did a masterful job of clogging the passing lanes, closing off the boards and forcing the play into the neutral zone.

The struggles on the powerplay can be corrected through practice and attention to detail. The face-off problems are more complex and not so easily cured. The Flames may need to acquire a veteran with a history of success in the circle solely for the purpose of winning the key draws the team has been losing all season long.

Flame Flicks:

Robyn Regehr, still smarting from a third period belt from Joe Thornton in Saturday’s tilt with the Sharks, was a late scratch. Staffan Kronwell suited up in Regehr’s steed and saw his first NHL action in 17 games.

Nigel Dawes was held off the scoresheet, but it took a miraculous glove save by Jonathan Quick to keep him clean. In the opening period, Dawes one-timed a cross crease feed from Jarome Iginla that seemed destined for the top corner, but Quick snagged the smoker to keep the game scoreless.

Craig Conroy mangled his hand or wrist in the third period after colliding with Los Angeles forward Oscar Moller and didn’t return to the game, although he did remain on the bench. No indication yet as to the severity of the injury.