Cammalleri's pair leads Flames past Avs
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Calgary Flames.The Calgary Flames caught a glimpse of what life could be like without the face of the franchise Wednesday.
Mike Cammalleri made sure to pick up the slack.
Cammalleri scored twice and Joey MacDonald made 27 saves as the Flames held on to beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Flames captain Jarome Iginla was a healthy scratch amidst trade speculation, and TSN's Aaron Ward reported during the third period that Iginla had been dealt to the Boston Bruins, though a deal has yet to be announced by either squad.
The Flames started MacDonald against Colorado (11-17-4) in place of Miikka Kiprusoff, who played 24 hours before against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Inspired by the absence of their captain, Calgary (13-15-4) buried starter Semyon Varlamov, outshooting Colorado 14-2 en route to building a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
With former Flames forward Chuck Kobasew in the box for hooking, Roman Cervenka fed fellow Czech Jiri Hudler in the slot. After a couple of whacks on Varlamov, Hudler was able to bang home his seventh of the season at 8:10.
Steve Begin extended the lead to two at 12:01 after his backhand from the goal line bounced off the stick of Shane O'Brien and trickled behind Varlamov.
The second period made for some more explosive hockey between the Western Conference's most generous defenses.
After Jamie McGinn and Cammalleri exchanged near-identical rebound goals 12 seconds apart to open the period, Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog scored a strange one just after MacDonald denied a streaking Matt Duchene with a dazzling second-effort.
Coming off the wing, Duchene poked the puck through Flames defenseman TJ Brodie and put a low shot on MacDonald. He handled the initial shot and reached back to snag the rebound in mid air before it had a chance to get into the net.
On the ensuing face-off, Landeskog's centering attempt from below the goal line ricocheted off the outside of the net, up MacDonald's pad and trickled into the net to cut Calgary's lead to 3-2 at 9:14.
Again, Cammalleri answered the goal, one-timing a Dennis Wideman feed from the bottom of the left circle behind Varlamov to return the lead to two with 7:19 remaining in the period.
Calgary tightened up in the third, thanks in part to MacDonald.
After losing track of the puck on a rebound that bounced up into the air, MacDonald scrambled to make a toe save off McGinn before gloving another attempt moments later.
The saves sparked the Flames, who couldn't solve Varlamov or the post on ensuing chances.
After working his way through the slot, Cervenka found Hudler parked to Varlamov's left, but struck the iron instead. On Calgary's next shot, Lee Stempniak slipped a shot under Varlamov's arm, but the puck trickled just wide of the post at the 10-minute mark.
Luck continued to follow the Avalanche. With both Matt Stajan and Alex Tanguay in the penalty box for a 5-on-3 advantage, Milan Hejduk broke his stick on his attempt from the point. The puck floated over to Ryan O'Reilly, who lifted his fourth over an out-of-position MacDonald to cut the lead to 4-3 at 12:34.
An inspired Duchene almost tied the goal with five minutes remaining, walking around Calgary blueliner Jay Bouwmeester and firing the puck just overtop of MacDonald's cage. He followed it up with another glove save off Duchene with 25.2 seconds remaining to preserve the win.
-- by Aaron Vickers for NHL.com --
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28/03/2013 - 06:08
