Posts Tagged ‘Calgary Flames’

Blackhawks 4, Flames 1

April 4th, 2010 by Leigh Michael Dengis

My boy Troy beat the Kipper

With today’s victory the Blackhawks clinched the central division title and tied the franchise record with their forty-ninth wins in a season with four games to go. It was the first time the organization has held the top spot in the division since the 1992-93 season.

Per usual, the ‘Hawks dominated the Calgary Flames on their way to a 4-1 victory. In the last two years the Blackhawks have owned the Flames – to say the least – going 8-0-0 and ousting them from the playoffs last year. Sunday’s win could have ruined Calgary’s chances of overtaking the eighth and final playoff spot in the west with three games left in the season – the Avalanche have five games (situation when writing this post) left to play. There must be so many kinds of hate coming from Flame fans towards the Blackhawks right about now.

Anyways, the goaltending today was great. Antti Niemi looks so comfortable in net right now. He gave up a few bad rebounds, but the defense was there to bail him out. The only blemish on the afternoon was when defenseman Ian White skated into the Blackhawks’ zone virtually untouched on his way to beat Niemi. Every facet of their game (minus the power play) was in working order.

The first two goals scored by Tomas Kopecky and Troy Brouwer was due to their conscious play in front Calgary’s goalie. It was Kopecky’s tenth goal of the season (a career high). Patrick Kane beat Miikka Kiprusoff on his stick side with a wicked wrist-shot from the slot in the second period, and Dustin Byfuglien scored in the third frame for the his first since returning to the blue line.

Next up, the Blackhawks will face the Dallas Stars this Tuesday. With four games in seven days to close out the season, I wonder if Coach Quenneville will give some players rest going forward.

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Escape From Cowtown – Blackhawks 3, Flames 1

January 22nd, 2010 by Leigh Michael Dengis

Where was the tenacity we are used to seeing from Calgary last night? Coming off a 9-1 loss to the Sharks you would think the Flames would come out swinging, but the Blackhawks did them a favor and handed them their sixth consecutive loss. The Flames we are familiar play a physical brand of hockey, are chippy and antagonize opposing players. None of that was really going on last night. With the recent history between the two teams, if the Blackhawks of all teams can’t provoke any energy from the Flames there is a big problem in Cowtown.

Miikka Kiprusoff (spelled it right the first time) was the only Flame to show up. His performance last night trumps that of Jonas Hiller and Brian Elliot. Except for Patrick Kane’s goal in the second period, Kipper was flawless. It took a series of lucky redirects for the Blackhawks to take beat Kiprusoff to take the lead in the third period. Tomas Kopecky tossed the puck at the net, it ricocheted off a Flame defender and its course was corrected off Ben Eager’s right leg. Rarely was Kiprusoff out of position and he didn’t cough up any rebounds.

After a brief hiatus, the Blackhawks’ defense returned last night. Not to take anything away from the solid game from Antti Niemi, but he faced a very manageable twenty shots. He made some great saves too. The only goal Niemi let in was on the penalty kill, Colin Fraser just lost his stick, he made the initial save with the insole of his skate and Brent Sopel was unable to clear the puck before Jamie Lundmark tapped in the rebound. An honorable mention should go out to Niklas Hjalmarsson, John Madden and Marian Hossa for their back checking.

Ducan Keith scored the final Blackhawks goal to clinch the Blackhawks 3-1 victory on an empty net. Hossa saw him streaking down the center of the ice, and set him up with a cross-ice pass.

Next up, the Blackhawks take the road show into Vancouver this Saturday. They have one three of the four games played on the trip so far with four more to go.

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Kaner Turned 21 – Blackhawks 7, Flames 1

November 19th, 2009 by Leigh Michael Dengis

The Calgary Flames must hate the Blackhawks more then they did going into tonight’s match-up. The ‘Hawks swept the season series last year, knocked them out of last year’s playoffs in the first round, and came back from five down in a historic victory earlier this season. Tonight, in the first of the six-game circus road trip the ‘Hawks won big over the Flame, 7-1.

First Period – Cristobal Huet started they game off well by making some great saves in the first period, and there were some great instances of back-checking by the Blackhawks that successfully disrupted the Flames in the defensive zone. Niklas Hjalmarsson spoiled a good scoring chance for Rene Bourque as he knocked the puck to Huet while was falling to the ice.

Troy Brouwer keeps winning my heart with his play in front of the net, and his goal off on his third consecutive rebound is just one example of how he is becoming the best on the roster in that spot. In the last five games, Brouwer has three goals and three assists.

Second Period – Olli Jokinen came out of the first intermission scoring up high on Huet with a man-advantage, but Hjalmarsson answered with a huge hit on Bourque seconds later. The Blackhawks were able to rattle off five unanswered goals to break the short-lived tie. Two of the period’s goals were from Kris Versteeg, one from Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Patrick Kane each. Huet was solid for the rest of the period after the early goal.

Third Period – It would have been easy for the Blackhawks to coast for the rest of the game with a five-goal lead, but they kept the pressure on the Flames. Huet made some more key saves, one in particular from Jokinen on his glove side. To top it off, Tomas Kopecky set up Ben Eager for his first goal of the season.

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History Made, Blackhawks Comeback From 5 – 0 Deficit

October 13th, 2009 by Leigh Michael Dengis

Well, I was set to write an entry all about how Troy Brouwer would need to be the guy to step up and provide a physical game for the Blackhawks with Adam Burish on the IR and Ben Eager struggling with post-concussion symptoms. He filled that role tonight. Brouwer had some big hits throughout the game, and squared off against Jarome Iginla. Brouwer left the ice with a bloody noggin as a result – still the act fired up the crowd even more after the fourth unanswered goal by Dave Bolland.

There were quite a few times where I thought about changing the TV station and watching something else after the Blackhawks were down 3 – 0, but I figured nothing else was on. If you stuck this one out like me, your patience was rewarded with a 6 – 5 overtime victory over the Calgary Flames. I am still amazed at how the Blackhawks pulled this one off. The team played horrible hockey for the first seventeen minutes of the game. Huet was porous – he let in three goals in under a minute, thus was pulled. It’s becoming hard to argue that Huet’s job as No. 1 is safe.

Antti Niemi started in net, letting in two goals out of the gate. Rene Bourque’s goal was too much for him on the glove side, but the trickler by Olli Jokinen was really ugly. It’s hard to come off the bench cold, but Niemi was solid after that, however. The Flames were held scoreless for the remainder of the night.

The whole team was playing uninspired hockey until John Madden scored late in the first period. That and whatever Coach Quenneville screamed at them during intermission sparked the comeback.

Patrick Kane led the charge in the second period with a quick wrist-shot just under the blue-line, and tallied assists on the next two goals from the Blackhawks. The three point night for Kane ties him with Patrick Sharp for the team lead in points with seven (3 goals, 4 assists). With Jonathan Toews off to another slow start, Kane has picked up the slack – he was all over the offensive zone and making great passes.

Sharp’s redirected shot in the third period to tie the game, and Brent Seabrook’s game winning goal in overtime finished out the greatest comeback in the Blackhawks’ eighty-three year history. Even the iron ‘stached Quenneville broke a smile when this one was over.

There may never be another game like this for the franchise, and yours truly is glad he didn’t turn this game off.

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Flames Tonight, Improvement Needed and Skille Recalled

October 12th, 2009 by Leigh Michael Dengis

The Blackhawks will have to play better then they did against the Colorado Avalanche if they want to live up to the pre-season hype. They won’t get away with the sloppy play that led to the 4-3 shootout win on Saturday – the Calgary Flames are 4-1-0 (8 points) and will capitalize on mistakes such as turnovers in the defensive zone. Last year the ‘Hawks owned the Jarome Iginla and company sweeping the regular season series and taking the first round playoff bout in six games.

The Flames play a scrappy brand of hockey – with Adam Burish on the mend and Ben Eager able return to the lineup tonight, the ‘Hawks skilled players could have a tough night ahead of them. It won’t be an easy night for guys like Patrick Kane, Kris Versteeg and Jonathan Toews.

This is the style of play the ‘Hawks miss with Eager on the shelf (a nice hit on Mike Cammalleri and takedown of Adam Pardy second later):

Special teams is another area that should be stressed tonight. The Flames enter the United Center holding the best power play in the league at 46.7%, but the Blackhawks haven’t been as successful. In three of the four games this season, the power play unit was unable to convert with a two-man advantage. That is unacceptable.

A decent surprise so far is that Brent Sopel hasn’t sucked. He has done a good job in the defensive zone clearing pucks and blocking shots. Sopel has been on the third pairing of defensemen, and has seen time on the penalty kill unit.

Another note is that former Chicago winger Rene Bourque leads the Flames with seven points (3 goals, 4 assists). They like him a lot up there.

UPDATE: Jack Skille was recalled just one day after being reassigned to Rockford.

UPDATE: Ben Eager concussion reports have been confirmed by Coach Quenneville, and he will be out indefinitely. I plan to write more on this issue after the game or tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.

Changes have been reflected on our In the Organization page above.

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Johnson Traded For A Left-Winger

October 7th, 2009 by Leigh Michael Dengis

Stan Bowman pulled the trigger today and traded defenseman Aaron Johnson for Kyle Greentree a left-winger formerly in the Calgary Flames system. Last year for the Quad City Flames the twenty-five year old tallied 76 points in 79 games (39 goals, 37 assists).

This transaction was made for a couple reasons. Tim Sassone mentions in his blog that getting rid of Johnson’s one-way contract off the books would give the team more cap flexibility. Brent Sopel and Jordan Hendry had better camps as well, so Johnson became expendable.

Another reason is that the Blackhawks have a couple more injured forwards – which will be covered in the next entry. Greentree could be used as soon as tomorrow in Detroit was assigned to Rockford.

Changes have been reflected on our In the Organization page above.

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