Flames look to rebound vs. Detroit
Last Updated: Saturday, October 31, 2009 | 2:01 PM ET
By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports
Calgary star Jarome Iginla has failed to score a goal in his last 17 games against Detroit. The two teams meet in Calgary on Saturday night. (Dale MacMillan/Getty Images) The Calgary Flames will try to shake off a tough loss that snapped their winning streak when they host the Detroit Red Wings on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night (10 p.m. ET, CBC, CBCSports.ca).
Winners of three straight, the Flames (7-3-1) were set for a fourth versus the Colorado Avalanche, but they blew an early two-goal lead on the way to a 3-2 loss.
The team also couldn't capitalize on a clear edge in shots — they fired 32 toward Craig Anderson while the Avs sent 14 at Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff.
"We lost the game and it's disappointing," coach Brent Sutter told NHL.com. "We didn't give them a whole lot the last two periods. I mean it was 14 shots total."
Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen needed just over a minute — 1:10 to be exact — to open up the 2-0 lead on Wednesday, but it was all of the offence the Flames could come up with.
"We weren't as sharp as we should have been after that first minute, we realize that," Iginla said. "They also played a good road game. They didn't do a lot of flashy things, they didn't get a ton of shots, but they were opportunistic and on a back-to-back night, they did what they had to do."
Helping the Flames' cause is that they won't be facing one of the hottest goaltenders in the league on Saturday like they did with the Avs. The Red Wings (4-4-3) have struggled to keep the puck out of their net all season long.
Detroit backup keeper Jimmy Howard made 20 stops on Tuesday in relief of Chris Osgood in the team's 5-4 win in Vancouver. Osgood was given the hook after he gave up two goals on four shots in the first 7:05 of the game.
Osgood is 3-2-2 with an atrocious 3.40 GAA in eight games this season and Howard may very well get the start at the Pengrowth Saddledome.
Howard was also in goal when his team rallied from a 5-1 deficit on Thursday against Edmonton to salvage a point in the shootout loss.
"It was very important for our team to battle back the way we did and show that kind of grit and determination," coach Mike Babcock said. "As a coach you have to question what they were doing at the start of the game. Overall, we shot ourselves in the foot there.
"But we challenged our team to respond and they did. It was a real good point from where we began with that terrible start."
Detroit also lost more than the game on Thursday when Valtteri Filppula went down with a broken wrist.
The second-line centre had six points in his last eight games and will be out of the lineup for six to eight weeks.
