Post-Game: Flames Beat Oil, Give Atomic Wedgies, Steal Lunch Money

This night of nights, this game of games, is the sweetest of victories for your fightin’ Flames as it comes against our perennially pathetic polar … poo-heads from the North. It’s not that the Flames won big, in Edmonton, it’s that the game was just so fun to watch for so many different reasons. Including a Taylor Hall/Dallas Eakins “mis-communication” which looked an awful lot like a cat fight. 

The Flames turned the second period into a highlight package and scored EIGHT TIMES. IN ONE GAME. AGAINST THE OILERS. One of them by Kevin Westgarth, the Brick Tamland of hockey. Drink it in Flames fans, this game is ties the largest margin of victory in a BOA and this may have been the most unexpected of Flames big wins in Edmonton. We can worry about the draft lottery and tanking and the rebuild tomorrow. For right now, this feels great.   

Best game ever.

Also, Matt Stajan melted some hearts with a penalty shot goal, Read all about it after the jump  

Right off the bat, Kevin Westgarth, whom was dressed tonight for reasons I do not understand, took a roughing penalty two minutes into the game. On that power-play, Jeff Petry scored on a point shot with Ryan Jones parked directly in front of him without a stick. Though the difference between Jones with a stick and without a stick are frankly negligible.  

After the 1-0 goal, Westgarth decided to correct his error by fighting Luke Gadzic, the same guy who knocked him out in a scary incident. Westgarth tried to protect himself throughout the majority of the scrap and was able to hold his own for the most part. Basically, who cares? Westgarth fighting a fellow goon seems inconsequential to me but that hardly seems important now doesn’t it? I won’t complain about anything else from this point on I promise.

Because after that, things were all smiles in Flameland. T.J Brodie, who rules, started a breakout and the puck found Mark Giordano who absolutely blasted one past Fasth and tied the game at 1. The game was tied at one heading into the second period. All things considered, the game was quite even going into the room, the Flames were leading in shots 9-8.

The second period started off pretty good for the Flames when four and a half minutes in, Paul Byron forced a turnover to Mikael Backlund who found a wide-open red-hot Mike Cammalleri to give the Flames a 2-1 lead. Things got very good after that.

One minute later, Matt Stajan was the recipient of a fairly generous call and was awarded a penalty shot. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from Stajan, whom isn’t known as much of a shootout specialist, I think anyone who saw what happened were pretty pleased:   

A pretty emotional goal considering all the hardship that Stajan and his family have endured recently. He points to the sky after the goal and …yeah. That is a pretty cool moment. Good on him.

The Flames would score twice more before the second period ended, one from Lord Byron, who rules, and one from Glencross who roofed one on Fasth and ended his night. The Flames went into the third WINNING 5-1?! I was tingling with glee. 

Heading into the third, I am sure most Flames fans would have been content with sitting on the four goal lead. However, the Flames decided to reward us for our loyalty this year by laying into our northern foes for three more goals on Ben Scrivens who must be super glad he willingly signed up for another tour of duty in goaltending Vietnam. 

Glencross scored twice in the third to complete the hat-trick and even, sigh, Kevin Westgarth scored in the third off of what I am going to assume was an intentional chest pass from Tyler Wotherspoon to make it 7-1 at that point. The game ended 8-1 and all is good in the world. 

One may be tempted to make Ryan Smyth the Red Warrior tonight as he somehow, and I have no idea how, managed to be even in an 8-1 loss. That is amazing. How is that even possible? Anywho, enough of the report from Shelbyville. The Flames had a number of amazing performances tonight including Curtis Glencross who scored a friggen hat trick, Mark Giordano who seems to be on a one man mission to make Dan Hamhuis pay for not being picked for the Olympic team, and T.J Brodie who, along with Gio, was +5 tonight. Even though we all hate that stat, that’s still pretty impressive.

However, the obvious choice is good ol’ Matthew “Ragin Franchise” Stajan who had four points tonight to go with his penalty shot goal. Just great stuff all around.

Flames rule, while the Oilers a pathetic excuse for a joke… also, they drool.

Flames host the Sharks on Monday.