Jokinen, Leopold Make Early Impression

Lombardi who? Prust? Sounds kinda familiar. Nycholat and Peters? Hmmm, sorta rings a bell…

A day after the Calgary Flames bid farewell to 4 players and welcomed ollie-21 in 2 in their stead, the new guys were already making an impression. Ollie Jokinen potted 2 goals and Jordan Leopold added 1 to the effort to lead the Flames to a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Fylers. Mike Cammalleri and Craig Conroy also scored, helping Calgary improve to 39-19-6 on the season. The win also puts the Flames at 2-for-2 on their 7 game road trip, and leaves them 10 points above Vancouver in the NWD.

Something rarely seen from the Flames happened in this particular game: they came out charging from the first puck drop in the game opener, and kept chugging right through the period. Calgary scored 4 unanswered goals in the first frame alone, and took a whopping 19 shots, allowing just 10 against. Calgary also had the luxury of enjoying the game’s first powerplay, and Cammalleri wasted no time using the man advantage to draw first blood. Less than a minute after the special teams went to work, The Littlest Flame put away his team leading 34th goal of the year unassisted. The goal came just past the 5 minute mark, and apparently provided the spark that Jokinen and Leopold had been waiting for to officially make their Calgary debuts. Halfway through the period, Ollie scored his first on a feed from Iggy. Five minutes after that, he increased his tally to 2 on a pass from Cammy. And with less than 2 to go in the opener, Leopold made it 4-0 Calgs on his first since being re-Flamed. All of that in the first period alone, and, yes, all of that from the former “first frame flounderers” the Flames. The pressure Calgary poured on was enough to silence the crowd in the Wachovia Centre, and was also enough to have Flyers netminder Antero Niittymaki hooked from the goal and replaced by Martin Biron.

Things were decidedly calm in the middle frame compared to the first. The Flames played it smart by shunning their usual “go in for the kill” style of play, opting instead to play it more conservative. Despite Philly taking 14 shots on net and Calgary just 7, the Flyers were held off the scoreboard for the second straight period. The Flames collapsed back to the net to protect their lead, making the workload light for Miikka Kiprusoff, and making the mountain Philly was climbing that much steeper.

By the time the third period started, I’m sure the thought of a shutout had crossed the Flames’ minds. Those thoughts were quickly put to rest though, by the hands of Flyers man Mike Knuble at the 4:42 mark. If Philly had been hoping for a momentum shift, however, they suited up against the wrong team. Despite giving up the goal and the chance for a perfect night, the Flames didn’t allow another goal against for the game, and outshot the Flyers 15-12 in the final 20. Connie also added insult to injury by scoring his 8th of the year with less than 5 to play, and Ollie nearly made it “hats off” night on what seemed like a sure goal until Biron robbed him. While the goal would have been the icing on an already sweet cake, it wasn’t needed, as Calgary rode out the dying minutes sitting on their 5-1 cushion and tucked a second consecutive road win under their belts.

The Flames will visit the 33-27-5 Carolina Hurricanes tonight as they look to keep things perfect on their stint away from the Dome. Game starts at 5:00pm MST on Sportsnet West and broadcast live on The Fan 960.