Another road win for the Calgary Flames, another brilliant performance for Miikka Kiprusoff, and another couple points for Jarome Iginla.  Things like that are starting to become par for the course as the Calgary Flames took a 3-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.

It’s a pretty good way to start a 6 game road trip for the Flames, which takes them to Columbus on Saturday.  Now, it wasn’t perfect…they were chasing a little bit in the first 40 minutes, specifically in the 2nd period.  But sometimes there are going to be games where you’re outshot (40-17), and there are going to be games where you need to rely on your goaltender.  But the ability to WIN those games is something that is not automatic to every team…what we’ve seen is the Flames do have the ability to find ways to win.

This game could have spiralled out of Calgary’s control heading into the final frame…they were outshot 17-5 in the 2nd period and had let Detroit control far too much possession.  But, they realized they were chasing too much in middle frame and corrected that in a big way in the final frame.  Calgary limited Detroit to just 8 shots in 3rd period, and few of those shots were quality scoring opportunities.  This time they didn’t find a way to win in the third, instead they closed a game out in the third.

Not a whole lot more you can say about Miikka Kiprusoff…I still believe he’s the best goaltender in the NHL right now, with no doubt in my mind.  There is not a goaltender in this league playing consistent, elite hockey like #34 is.  Jarome Iginla now has 16 points in 12 November games, with 2 assists on this night.  And Olli Jokinen now has points in 8 of 10 games…he was very good tonight.

Calgary has scored first in 10 of 12 road games this year, and 19 of 24 games overall…they’re now 13-3-3 when scoring the first goal.  Calgary’s also improved to 12-0-1 when leading a game after 40 minutes of play.  It’s an 8 game road point streak for the Flames and an 8-1-3 record overall away from home.

As for Detroit…I just don’t know what you do if you’re Mike Babcock.  Your team has fired 80 shots on net in the last 2 games and have scored a grand total of 0 goals.  Over 6 games, Detroit has fired 217 shots on net and scored just 5 goals.  But do you change anything?  Or do you just wait for the levy to break?

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