VANCOUVER — The Calgary Flames have won their share of games they didn’t deserve.
Not this one.
It was by the thinnest of margins, but the Flames regrouped from a horrible effort the night before to beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in a thrilling shootout Saturday night in a Northwest Division first-place showdown.
Jamie Lundmark iced the skills competition which saw all three Flames shooters tally before the sellout GM Place crowd of 18,810.
“I kinda had an idea what I was going to do,” said Lundmark, who also scored to make it 2-2 at the midway point of the second period.
“Some of the guys were giving it to me for the little extra move way before the goalie.
“I don’t really go in without a plan. It just worked.”
Miikka Kiprusoff stopped just one shooter but it was enough for Calgary (26-14-5) to move atop the Northwest Division.
Vancouver (27-16-2) is one point behind.
But that’s just part of the elation for the Flames.
They needed to make some amends for a miserable performance in Friday night’s
3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Facing a Canucks team missing three of its top seven defencemen, the Flames came out firing on all cylinders.
They 40-21 edge they had in shots proves how well they carried the bulk of the play from start to finish.
“Everyone was challenged,” said captain Jarome Iginla. “We knew they were talking about it being a huge game, and those are the types of games you look at. It’s mid-season, but those are as close to a playoff game as you’re going to get and one you look forward to playing.
“You know how much is on the line, and I thought every single guy showed up to play.”
Each gave everything they could to the cause.
In the case of Brandon Prust, it was a pair of fights with Canucks scrapper Rick Rypien.
“It’s something sometimes you’ve got to do, try to light a fire under the boys,” Prust said.
Rene Bourque also scored for Calgary.
“We played hard. We played with an energy level I’d like to see this team play with,” said head coach Brent Sutter, who didn’t have such kind words for his troops the night before. “It was more important to get our game back to where we’d like after not playing up to our standards (Friday) night.”
Daniel Sedin and Mikael Samuelsson tallied for the Canucks.
On top of the fights, the clubs were at each other all game.
In fact, at the end of the second period, all the players on the ice gathered and exchanged pleasantries.
Canucks goalie and captain Luongo evened bumped Iginla while all the players were jawing at each other.
Curiously, the only infractions were misconducts to Calgary’s Mark Giordano and Vancouver’s Mason Raymond.
As if the bad blood on the ice wasn’t enough to bring everything to a boil, the night also featured a fan using a laser pointer on Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff until it was found in overtime.
“It’s ridiculous. We could see it from the bench, see it shining on his mask throughout the whole night,” Sutter said.
“It was going on all night. It was brought to the attention of the refs and security. It’s hard to believe that can go on for 60 minutes of a hockey game and it’s not located.”
Calgary is back in action tomorrow night when the Colorado Avalanche come calling.
randy.sportak@sunmedia.ca
