Flames Outshine Stars in 2-1 Home Victory

Last night must have been “Unofficial Unlikely Hero Night” in Calgary.

It wasn’t Jarome Iginla, Olli Jokinen or Mike Cammalleri who scored either of Calgary’s two goals. No, last night was all about Jamie Lundmark, Eric Nystrom and Dustin Boyd.

Not only did Lundmark fire up the Flames and get the Sea of Red amped by dropping the gloves with Steve Ott early in the game, he also scored the equalizer for the Flames. Both teams went scoreless throughout the first period, and when Calgary hit the ice for the middle frame, barely a minute into it they found themselves trudging uphill after an early marker from Stars man Brendan Morrison. But the Dallas party was soon crashed. After some fancy foot work by Boyd to feed the puck to Daymond Langkow, Marty Turco seemed sure that Lanks would take the shot from the right. But on a quick pass to a waiting and wide open Lundmark, the play shifted faster than Marty could, and the cage was all but open for Jamie to fire home a wrister, leaving the fans cheering, and Turco sliding defeatedly into the corner.

But Lundmark wasn’t the only shining light in this tilt. Eric Nystrom took a hard shot to the lower body while Calgary was on the penalty kill, which saw him head to the bench in a visible amount of pain. But he was far from done for the night. On a play that came close to defying logic, Boyd was able to reach out and snatch back the puck as it headed out to offside territory. It wasn’t exactly his most graceful few seconds on the ice, but it was enough to save the play and backhand the puck to a flying Nystrom. Eric wasted no time burying the puck 5-hole on Marty, nearly falling himself as the horns blew and the Flames went up. With less than half of the final frame to go, Dallas battled hard to tie things up, but Calgary protected their fragile one goal lead with everything they had and it paid off as they sent the Stars packing with zero points to show for the effort.

Last night’s win marked Calgary’s 41st of the season, but more notably, it marked netminder Miikka Kiprusoff’s 200th NHL career victory. The Fantastic Finn was in top form last night after facing mounting criticism over some shaky appearances during the recent roadtrip, but it seems that he and that rest of the time may just have needed a breather and a night in their own beds to get their heads together.

Next up for the Flames, the St. Louis Blues will make a stop at the Dome on Friday night. Game starts at 7:00pm MST on Sportsnet West and broadcast live on The Fan 960.

Posted by Melisa Ferreira on Mar 19 2009. Filed under Calgary Flames, Dallas Stars, Northwest, Pacific. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.