Flames 5, Sabres 2

I’d like to start by saying hats off to Mike Cammalleri, who scored his second hat trick of the season last night to launch the Flames to a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. Although Todd Bertuzziscored the game winning goal for the Flames, the efforts of Calgary’s lucky #13 played the dominating role in the victory. During the last 7 games, Mike has 11 goals and 2 assists, and leads the team with 25 goals on the season, trumping the Calgary captain Jarome Iginla by 6.

The Flames played fast and hard last night at home in the ‘Dome, most likely working to escape suffering a similar fate to Edmonton’s. The Oilers lost 10-2 to Buffalo the night before. (the loss was Edmonton’s worst home-ice humiliation in franchise history) Despite playing back-to-back games, though, Buffalo didn’t go down easy, at one point evening things out a 2-a-piece after being down 2-0, so props to them for keeping up with pace and helping the Flames deliver an uber exciting game for the fans.

The   “One Knee Wonder” wasted no time getting things going in the first, scoring at 3:51 while Calgary was on the power play. Cammalleri fired a first shot then gobbled up his own rebound and stuffed a wrister past Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. The early marker was the only goal of the first period, but was enough to send Calgary to the dressing room with the advantage. 

Early scoring seemed to be a theme for Calgary in the game, as less than 5 minutes into the middle frame, DionPhaneuf put a feed from Craig Conroy past Miller to up the score 2-0 Flames. Buffalo finally found a way to answer back, though, on an 11:43 goal from Drew Stafford, who hadn’t scored in more than 10 games. The Flames worked hard to increase their lead, but Miller was apparently feeling stingy after already giving up 2 in the contest, and held the Boys in Red off the board for the rest of the period. The same can not be said for Miikka Kiprusoff, however, who had a 19:09 goal from Tim Connolly slip past him, levelling things out at 2-2 heading into the third.

As seems to be his fashion of late, Todd Bertuzzi, yet again, came to the rescue of his team mates. With things tied at 2 and the clock inching towards the 8 minute mark of the last period, Adrian Aucoin fed a wide open Bertuzzi, who then took off around Buffalo defenseman Toni Lydman and up ice to fire a wrist shot past Miller at 7:08, breaking the tie and giving Calgary the 3-2 edge. If you find yourself now wondering what happened to Mike Cammalleri, he provided a stark reminder of how dangerous he (and his netminder) can be on the man-advantage at 11:44 of the frame. Kipper made a long up-ice feed to Jarome Iginla, who then passed the puck to a wating Cammalleri who fired a fast slapper over the shoulder of Miller to put the Flames up 4-2. But Master Mike wasn’t done yet, and less than 2 minutes later he struck gold with a quick wrister, pushing the Flames to a 5-2 lead, where they would stay for the remainder of regulation.

Overall it was a great game, but individually there were defintely some players who stuck out from the crowd, and the most obvious one without a doubt was #13. Although he could potentially become a free agent this summer, I’m really hoping that Calgary will extend him an offer worthy of his talent, because Cams has more than proven that playing on the top line for the top team in the NWD is where he belongs.

Next up for the red hot Flames (29-14-4), the Nashville Predators (19-23-4) pay a visit to Saddle City on Friday, January 30. Game action sets off at 7:00pm MST on Sportsnet West and broadcast live on The Fan 960.

Posted by Melisa Ferreira on Jan 29 2009. Filed under Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.