CANUCKS BOUNCE BACK TO TOP FLAMES

The Vancouver Canucks shocking defeat at the hands of Colorado on Sunday night gave the Calgary Flames an unexpected advantage in the Northwest Division race.  The Flames had the opportunity to clinch the title on Tuesday night in Vancouver, but were denied by the stellar performance of Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo.  Luongo single handedly kept his team in the race as Vancouver beat Calgary 4-1 despite being outshot 47-25.

Calgary came out smoking, and kept Luongo under pressure throughout the opening period as they outshot the Canucks 21-9 in the first twenty minutes of play.   Despite the Flames’ offensive onslaught, the Canucks improbably managed to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission thanks to Rick Rypien’s third goal of the season at the 17:21 mark, assisted by Ryan Johnson and Alexander Edler.  The Flames evened the score at the 14:44 mark of the second period when Jarome Iginla lit the lamp assisted by Olli Jokinen and Michael Cammalleri.  Vancouver would regain the lead just 24 seconds later when Mattias Ohlund scored set up by Ryan Kesler.  The Canucks would stretch their advantage in the third period thanks to a power play goal by Ohlund and an even strength score just over two minutes later by Henrik Sedin. 

After the game, Flames coach Mike Keenan gave all of the credit to Luongo:

"We wanted to finish it off tonight. Luongo obviously thought differently. Luongo was the difference. We had a number of chances to get involved in the game offensively and he just stymied us. He was putting on a goaltending clinic tonight.”

Canucks’ defenseman Mattias Ohlund admitted that his team had been outplayed and that they owed the win to their goaltender:

"We'd rather take two points and play bad than the opposite, but we didn't play great. They totally outplayed us and Louie stole the game."

Luongo said that facing the sort of onslaught that Calgary brought to bear was just another ‘night at the office’:

"Once I make those saves early I get in a comfort zone and they kept throwing pucks at the net from everywhere and for me personally that's the kind of game I like.”

Calgary still controls their own destiny, and can win the division by sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in their final two games.  They’ll play the Oilers in Edmonton on Friday and at home on Saturday but there’s one stat that makes the equation all the more interesting:  the Flames are a woeful 2-10-2 in the second of back-to-back games this season.  If Vancouver can manage to earn at least one point more than Calgary in the final two games they’ll win the division.  They’ll host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday before concluding the regular season at Colorado on Saturday.