After a somewhat even 1st period where the Avs outshot the Flames 13-9, the Avs came out flat for the next 30 minutes. The whole 2nd period was spent in their zone and the Flames ended up capitalizing on one of their chances when the Avs were caught in a line change. Nigel Dawes got the feed from David Moss on the 2 on 1 and put it high glove on Anderson who was sliding over from the other side of the net.
In the first part of the 3rd, there was no difference from the 2nd period. The Flames held the Avs in their own zone. Just over 2 minutes into the period, the Flames made it a 2-0 game. The Avalanche killer, Rene Bourque, tipped a shot from the point by Cory Sarich past Craig Anderson.
The top line of Stewart, Stastny and Galiardi finally decided to show up to the game a little under 8 minutes into the 3rd. They put together a great shift down low that ended in Galiardi taking a feed from the side of the net by Stewart and banging it in past Kiprusoff. It would be all Avs the rest of the way as Calgary was just chipping it out of the zone every chance they got. Kiprusoff made all the big saves he had to.
That would be all the offense the Avs would be able to muster up. Calgary did a good job of keeping out of the penalty box as they only gave the Avs 1 powerplay that was a failure. The Avs PK was much improved tonight killing all 3 of its opportunities. Ryan O'Reilly deserves a lot of credit as he and the rest of his line were the best players for the Avs the whole night.
Right now the two teams are tied at 89 points for the last spot in the west but the Avs still have a game in hand and also hold the tiebreaker in case they end up with the same amount of points. Statistically the Avs still have the upper hand and both teams have pretty tough schedules. They both have games against Chicago, San Jose, and Vancouver. The Avs also have Oilers and Kings while the Flames also have Minnesota. Assuming Calgary wins out, the Avs would have to win 4 of those games. Not an easy task.
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