  It may be a stretch, but it’s no stretch seeing Kipper shine! Red Wings winger Kris Draper is robbed by Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff in the dying seconds of the first period last night at the Dome. (LYLE ASPINALL/SUN MEDIA) |
Eerily quiet is the only way to describe the Calgary Flames locker-room after their Halloween night loss.
With a 59-second outburst in the second period, the Detroit Red Wings carved the Flames for a 3-1 decision at the Saddledome and proved they still have some of those same fangs that took them to the Stanley Cup final the last two springs.
Missing many of the talented forwards that helped them win it all two years ago, the Red Wings have struggled with consistency out of the gate. But Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom remain, and the supporting cast is pretty scary, too.
It took the Flames 34:43 to get the lead and less than a minute to give it up. Another minute after that, and they were behind 2-1.
"We know the shifts after goals are huge to continue that pressure and momentum," said Flames captain Jarome Iginla, whose line failed to compete with the Wings' top trio. "Unfortunately, right there, we broke down right after a big goal."
Freshly trailing 1-0 on Daymond Langkow's third of the season -- after he batted the puck past Chris Osgood with an ALCS-worthy swing -- the Wings pulled even 35 seconds later when Brad Stuart's long shot bounced off a horizontal Mark Giordano and handcuffed Miikka Kiprusoff.
Holmstrom got the best of the Flames netminder less than a minute later with a snapshot into the far side to capitalize off a steal by Datsyuk that had home-side head coach Brent Sutter cursing on the bench.
Kiprusoff's pass intended for Curtis Glencross was picked off by the opportunistic Russian, who didn't break stride as he gained the zone and got the puck to Holmstrom.
"We caused problems for ourselves by turning the puck over," Langkow said. "They played the same for 60 minutes. That's why they won. If we play our game for 60, it might be a different story."
Another giveaway -- this one by Robyn Regehr -- led to an easy empty-netter by Kirk Maltby in the final seconds of the game.
The effort up front wasted a stellar performance by Kiprusoff, who was easily the Flames' best player on the night.
He treated the fans and managed to trick the Red Wings on many occasions.
Most impressive was the stop Kiprusoff made as the last few seconds ticked off the clock in the opening period.
Setting up Kris Draper for what looked be an easy tap-in goal with his cross-ice saucer pass over a sliding Jay Bouwmeester, Patrick Eaves couldn't believe his teammate was denied by the quick lateral stab by Kiprusoff.
Kiprusoff also stoned Justin Abdelkader in the second period thanks to a nifty trap on a quick shot from the Wings defenceman that had the Flames goalie taking a quick peek behind him to make sure it didn't slip between his arm and body.
Even Holmstrom's infamous impeding rear end couldn't keep the Finn from stopping a Niklas Kronwall point shot through the screen.
But at the other end, there wasn't much scaring Kipper's counterpart, Osgood.
"We didn't generate a whole lot offensively, and I think part of that is because we never put enough pucks in towards the net," Sutter said of the Flames' 21-shot performance. "They still want to make the perfect plays in the offensive zone.
"To some degree, I think that's why Langkow's line has been our most effective line, because they will take pucks to the net and they throw pucks to the net. The other guys are having a tougher time because they don't want to do that."
STEVE.MACFARLANE@SUNMEDIA.CA
