It took 79 seconds for the Calgary Flames to erase a 3-1 deficit and put them on the right track towards a 4-3 Flames shootout win in Columbus on Saturday night.  You can make it 9 straight games with a point for Calgary on the road, and the Flames now sit 9-1-3 away from home.  It was a good 3rd period and a solid finish for the Flames, who clearly rattled a young Jackets team.

On the game…I thought Calgary’s 3rd period push was a little late, but it eventually came and it was successful.  The fact Calgary was able to stick with it as the 3rd period went along was impressive again…the 3rd period continues to be when this team plays their best hockey.  Over the last 5 games, the Flames have outscored their opponents 8-1 in the final frame.  Calgary got a little sloppy in the 2nd period, and they payed for it…as Brent Sutter said, they didn’t play smart hockey in the last 10 minutes or so of the 2nd period.  But they did some good things in the opening 30 minutes and got back to them when they needed to.

Was Curtis McElhinney great in this game?  Well, no.  But he stuck with it and played well in the 3rd period, making some big saves before the Flames came back to tie this game.  The Methot and Boll goals were not good, and he gave up some big rebounds.  But give the guy credit and give the team credit…they both stuck with it and both were rewarded.  You wonder how big that is for the confidence of a young goaltender…he wins his first game back on November 4th, has to wait 24 days to get back in, and wins a game in a totally different way.

The tandem of Olli Jokinen and Jarome Iginla were very good once again…make it 18 points in 13 November games for Iginla, and make it points in 9 of 11 games for Jokinen.  Olli is looking a whole lot more comfortable, and you can tell things are coming a whole lot more naturally for him.  What else can you say about Jay Bouwmeester…he was unreal for the 26:12 he played on the ice, and Dion Phaneuf was very good tonight as well.  Dion lead all skaters with 27:52 of ice time and fired 13 shots towards the Columbus net, 5 of them getting through.

You could tell the Flames rattled this Jackets team…it’s a young team and they didn’t have a response once Boyd scored to get this game within 1 goal.  That’ll get better as things go along, but you could tell the Flames got them scrambling in the 3rd.  Flames are in Nashville on Monday.  Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Steinberg960.

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