Post-Game: Jooris Scores, Flames Lose Anyway

A lot of the talk prior to tonight’s game revolved around a 60-minute effort. The Flames had a 60-minute game in Nashville and, combined with some great goaltending, the club won 3-2. They didn’t have a 60-minute game against Chicago and somehow won the game based on miracles, witchcraft and Jonas Hiller being crazy-good.

Tonight the Flames’ effort was closer to the Chicago game than the Nashville game. Travel, flu and four games in six nights will do that, but the team will really be kicking themselves for letting Columbus run the show for 40 minutes, as it left them scrambling in the third and their comeback fell short. The Flames lost 3-2 at Nationwide Arena.

Here’s how it happened.

The Flames didn’t have a great first period. They failed to generate much and before they knew it, through some shoddy play in their own end and a wacky puck-over-glass penalty, they were down 2-0. Jack Skille scored early on with a tip-in. Ryan Johansen got a good shot away on the power-play and scored. After that, the Jackets were content to shuffle the puck around and didn’t press as much. Columbus led in shots by a 8-6 margin in the second. The “highlight” of the period was a scrap involving Ladislav Smid.

The Jackets continued to run their game in the second period and dictate the pace, and went up 3-0 after Matt Calvert poked the puck past Karri Ramo after a nice stop by Ramo on a point-blank Mark Letestu chance. However, the Flames began to move their legs a bit and generated more shots and chances in the latter half of the period. Overall, shots actually favoured the Flames 11-9, but the Jackets never really seemed on their heels and controlled much of the game.

The Flames finally got on the board in the third period (sound familiar?), with some excellent puck work on their power-play. Mason Raymond got a gorgeous set-up pass from Curtis Glencross and tapped it in just after the Columbus penalty expired to make it 3-1. Mid-way through the period, the Flames pulled even closer.

Welcome to the NHL, Mr. Jooris. Unfortunately, the Flames would press and press but not get any closer. They out-shot the Jackets 14-9 in the third, but couldn’t quite capitalize on enough of those opportunities and lost by a single goal.

They were out-played by Columbus for the first 40 minutes and didn’t quite have enough left in the tank for a full third period comeback.

Josh Jooris scored a goal and played in virtually every situation for the Calgary Flames tonight. He got 15 minutes of ice-time (including over a minute of PP and PK time), had 3 shots, 2 hits and his nice goal. He was noticeable all night long.

The Flames’ record drops to an even 3-3-0 on the season. They’re back in action on Sunday in the sixth and final game on their long, long road trip when they face the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Center. The game will air on City TV as part of the Hometown Hockey coverage and the game begins at 5pm MT.