TORONTO — It was ’80s night at the Air Canada Centre.
The Calgary Flames played like they were stuck in the days of VCRs, acid wash jeans and hair metal bands.
Seeming to take a cue from the long-gone era when clubs tried to win strictly with offence and almost ignored the defensive side of play, the Flames came up with a victory as ugly as the mullets and cheesy moustaches that were all so prevalent back then with their 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night.
“We scored five goals, but it’s how we play — puck management, and how we play when we don’t have it,” said head coach Brent Sutter, who wasn’t going to dish out any style points. “It’s quite evident there’s still work to be done on that end.
“You get five out of six points (in three games), it is a successful trip, but we need to play better. It’s so important you do because the games don’t get easier, they get tougher as you go on. If you don’t get it where you have to get it, you’re gonna be on the outside too many nights.”
Calgary finished its three-game road trip with a pair of wins and a shootout loss to run its record to 12-4-2.
Like a predictable rerun of Who’s the Boss?, the Flames followed the same script as the night before in their
2-1 shootout loss in Buffalo — a quick start but soon after losing all the momentum.
Just like so many games already this season, they jumped out early.
Jarome Iginla scored just 81 seconds in, before the sellout crowd could digest the pre-game footage of all the great players but bad teams that skated in Hogtown during what was a futile decade.
Then Eric Nystrom beat Maple Leafs goalie Jonas (The Monster) Gustavsson 16 seconds later to double the lead.
Two goals. Two shots. It looked like the rout was on.
It even appeared Francois Beauchemin’s powerplay goal to make it 2-1 wouldn’t slow the Flames, because Dustin Boyd’s goal before the
10-minute mark chased the Leafs’ rookie from the net.
But, as we’ve seen far too many times this season, the Flames didn’t immediately go for the jugular.
They stopped generating chances, started surrendering turnovers, and the hosts happily took over the game before the sellout crowd of 19,316.
That’s when Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff saved the day again, or the Flames would have been just as dead as pop ballads featuring saxophone solos.
By the end of the second period, Toronto had a 30-11 edge in shots, but could only pull within one on Matt Stajan’s powerplay goal early in the middle frame.
Kiprusoff’s 38-save performance earned him his first career victory in Toronto.
“I didn’t know that,” said Kiprusoff, who was outstanding all three games on the trip. “We don’t come here too often. I guess it was time to win.”
Fortunately for the Flames, Iginla collected his second goal of the night — his seventh tally in six games and 11th this season — and Jay Bouwmeester added a powerplay goal in the third period to salt it away.
“You fight trying to think it’s going to be an easy night and try to stay focused, but they’re also embarrassed,” Iginla said in trying to explain how the Flames nearly lost despite an early lead. “They’re at home and they responded. We want to keep it going and keep the pressure, but they weren’t happy with the way it was going. We’ll keep working on that.
“We did have a good third period and did what we had to do to win that game.”
The Flames return home to games Tuesday against Colorado and Thursday versus Chicago.
randy.sportak@sunmedia.ca
