Calgary Dominate Sharks in Rematch 5-2

The past two days, the Calgary Flames only had one thing on their mind: their 1-6 loss to San Jose in November.  Coach Mike Keenan said that the Flames, in order to be a good team, had to do what the Sharks do: pay attention to the little details.  In the first period, the Flames paid attention to one little detail: the puck at the back of the net.

Calgary outshot the Sharks 16-4 in the first period and scored three first period goals as they easily beat the Sharks 5-2.  David Langkow scored two of Calgary's first four unanswered goals, his second being the last shot Evgeni Nabokov faced in the night as he was pulled for Brian Boucher 1:26 into the second period.  The move by Coach Todd McLellon seemed more to be a message to his team than a punishment for Nabokov, as his goalie was given no help from his defensemen who allowed Calgary to move the puck at will through the crease.

The message seemed to be received by the Sharks, as Ryan Clowe scored on a 5-3 power play 4 minutes later to negate a shut-out.  Soon after, Patrick Marleau created a turnover in Calgary's zone with a poke check, and fed Mike Grier for his 8th goal of the year while San Jose was short-handed.  The Sharks seemed to be getting into Mikka Kiprusoff's head, as he was shouting at the referees during a timeout.  But Kiprusoff shut the door with the help of the goal posts, and David Moss scored in the third period, again due to poor defensive play by the Sharks, to put the game out of reach.

The game was very one-sided in the first, as the Sharks only registered 4 shots, none of which were good scoring chances.  Alexei Semenov tried to stir things up for his team as he fought Andre Roy twice, but the referees declared both of them as roughings and they both only got 2 minute minors for the scrum, resulting in some 4v4 play in the second period.  Although the Sharks used the opportunities to even up the shot totals in the end, they could not capitalize with the extra man and went 1 for 4 on the power play, with the 1 goal being scored by Clowe on a 5-3.  The loss drops the Sharks to 1-2-3 in their last 6 road games, while calgary improved to 15-4-3 in their last 22 games played.  Rob Blake was bidding for his 500th career assist but had one taken away in the game as it was corrected to Dan Boyle's point, leaving Blake still at 499.