CALGARY, AB -- After a lackluster performance against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night, the Calgary Flames wanted to cap off their two-game homestand with a bang. They did just that.
The Flames exploded offensively against the New Jersey Devils, a team that prides themselves in their sharp defensive play, and got contributions from five different players.
"We had a more thorough effort throughout the whole team," Curtis Glencross said of the difference between Wednesday's game and this one. "Every line contributed and that's a big part of it."
The game also gave the club a huge confidence boost. Martin Brodeur is regarded as one of the greatest goalies in the game and to be able to put five pucks past him is something the team is quite proud of.
"We knew we wanted to get on him early and get pucks at his feet and test him out," Glencross said. "We did a good job at putting pucks on the net from everywhere. That was our game plan going in and it worked out for us."
Zach Parise opened the scoring at 13:37 of the first period after a great passing play with Travis Zajac and Andy Greene.
The Flames offensive game opened up the second frame. Daymond Langkow got the scoring started for the hometown team when he was able to knock a Christopher Higgins pass past Brodeur while on his knees.
Curtis Glencross scored the go-ahead tally while the Flames were short-handed. He was able to duck past veteran Brian Rolston, cruise in and sent it over Brodeur's glove.
"I knew that he's kind of a fancy player and he was going to try to go around me. I just got a stick on it and was kind of surprised - I thought the other defenseman was closer to me at first. It's nice having a breakaway from the far blue (line)."
That shot - a wrister top glove side - has become Glencross' signature move and he said he isn't going to deviate from it.
"I've got to go with something that I've had success with," he smiled. "I didn't want to try anything too fancy, just go down. You're still on the PK so you don't want to turn it over or anything like that. It's one of my moves and I've got to stick with it."
Eric Nystrom capped off the second period flurry with a great individual effort in front of the net. After battling on the half-wall, Nystrom carried the puck to the front of the net, taking a shot and then picking up his own rebound and batting it in the net on his backhand while being shoved down by a Devils defender.
The third period wasn't much better for Brodeur.
Matt Stajan made it 4-1 after slapping home a Rene Bourque rebound. Just 33 seconds later, David Moss added goal number five, beating Brodeur on the post with several swift whacks at the puck.
Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk scored late in the third period.
The Flames head out on the road on Sunday, taking on the Minnesota Wild at 1:00 p.m. MST on Rogers Sportsnet & The FAN 960.
|WHY THE FLAMES WON |
|Instead of going with passing plays and looking for the tic-tac-toe goals, the Flames got gritty in front of world-class goaltender Martin Brodeur and it paid off. Every player had an edge to their game and no one was afraid to go into the difficult areas. They maintained a net presence and were in Brodeur's face every chance they got. |
|GAME NOTES |
|With a plethora of bodies on the roster, the Flames had four healthy scratches. D Adam Pardy, F Brian McGrattan, F Nigel Dawes and F Craig Conroy all sat out of the contest. The Devils scratched D Martin Skoula, F Andrew Peters, F Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and F Rod Pelley. Prior to the puck drop, the Flames honoured Canada's Olympic athletes by having members of the women's hockey team on the ice for a ceremonial puck drop and various Olympic athletes out for the singing of the national anthem. |
|TONIGHT'S DIGITS |
|21 - Games without a goal for Langkow. He notched his 12th of the year in the second period. |
3 - Short-handed goals for Glencross this season. Overall, the Flames have potted 7 markers while on the penalty kill.
19:56 - Ice time for Steve Staios.
4 - Hits for Jamal Mayers. He also fought 2 times in his 9:07 of ice time.
5 - Shots that were blocked by the Devils by Jarome Iginla.
|"Our offense has hurt us. We've talked about it. Obviously we need guys scoring goals." - Head coach Brent Sutter on the teams offensive output. |
"They had five forwards out there on the power play and we wanted to take advantage of them guys if we got a chance." - Glencross on the mindset the team had before he scored his short-handed goal.
"It's huge, especially against a team like New Jersey that prides themselves on defensive play, for our team that hasn't scored that many goals lately. It's a huge rush for our team." - Eric Nystrom on the win.
"He goes to that spot all the time so it's nice to see Lanks get rewarded. He's usually in front hanging around." - Sarich on Langkow's opening marker.
|HARDEST WORKING FLAMES |
| || || || |
|Curtis Glencross |
His shortie ignited the bench, +2 rating in 13:13 of ice time.
| ||Eric Nystrom |
Scored his 7th goal of the season, gritty effort all night
| ||Daymond Langkow |
Broke out of a 21 game scoring slump, 3 shots in 18:43