  Vancouver Canucks congratulate teammate and captain Roberto Lungo after a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Vancouver, B.C. on Sunday, Mar 14. (CARMINE MARINELLI/QMI AGENCY) |
VANCOUVER — Not only did the Calgary Flames get a taste of reality, it was shoved down their throats early.
When the Sedin Twins weren’t stuffing the net, Ryan Kesler took his turn serving the visitors a hefty portion of humble pie to end a four-game Flames winning streak at GM Place Sunday night.
No one expected the Flames to win all their remaining games.
Counting on seeing their best effort on a nightly basis, however, isn’t too much to ask.
What makes the 3-1 loss to the Canucks so tough to swallow is the fact the Flames were trying. They never quit.
They were simply dismantled by a better team — one that has taken full control of the Northwest Division and made the Flames’ goal of just making the playoffs a little more difficult in the process — in a span of 17 minutes they never recovered from.
“They were obviously a lot better than us in the first period,” said Flames captain Jarome Iginla, whose team was behind 3-0 by the first intermission. “We weren’t ready to go full kilter the way we have been lately. We’ve been jumping on teams early lately.
“We felt the other side of that tonight.”
The Sedin Twins struck quickly, setting the tone a little more than a minute into the game with an appetizer for the Canucks fans and a sampling of what was to come for the Flames.
Henrik and Daniel created chaos around Miikka Kiprusoff’s net. Daniel finished off a perfect pass from his brother to get things going.
Ryan Kesler added to the lead about six minutes later, then the Twins were back at the buffet, with Henrik scoring for the 3-0 lead that looked too easy in spite of some stellar goaltending from Kiprusoff.
The deficit might have been five or six if not for his heroics.
For his effort, Kiprusoff was sent to the bench for the second period with countryman Vesa Toskala coming in to keep the starter fresh for Monday’s even more critical contest against the Detroit Red Wings.
“I personally felt (Kiprusoff) had played a full game already,” said Flames head coach Brent Sutter.
“I was shocked to see us play that way in the first period. This time of year, it shouldn’t take much to get ready for games, especially where we’re at.”
Whether it was fatigue from playing the night before, a safer approach to protect a big lead, or Flames desperation that kicked in, the Canucks relied on Roberto Luongo for next 40 minutes. They didn’t even bother to take a shot in the third period, and were outshot 27-8 over the final two periods.
It didn’t matter. The damage had been done.
And the Flames couldn’t find a way to score until Robyn Regehr’s long bomb skipped past Luongo with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation.
“We didn’t come out ready to play. That’s unacceptable,” said winger Curtis Glencross. “At this time of year you’ve got to come ready to play. We let ourselves down, let our teammates down, let everyone down.”
steve.macfarlane@sunmedia.ca
