A rare Flame 3-game winning streak in October has brought the club from what some suggested was a “dire” situation into an “all’s well” thumbs up.

   All in the space of a week. 

   Back-to-back setbacks to the Edmonton Oilers last weekend brought out the naysayers, forgetting it was just 5 games into the season.

   Without getting too carried away now, when the Flames won 4-1 in Phoenix on Saturday they moved past the Oilers and to within 2 points for first place in the NW Division.

   How rare is it for the Flames to win 3-straight in October?  The last time it happened was 2001 part of a 4-game winning streak.  Prior to that it was 1993 when the club won 4-straight to begin the campaign.

   Saturday was the Flames best performance thus far.  All aspects of the team’s game were solid with a higher winning score prevented by Mikhal Tellqvist’s superb play in goal for the Coyotes.

   Defenseman Dion Phanuef sparked this thriumph scoring his first goal of the season to go with 6 assists. He was also outstanding defensively.  Captain Jarome Iginla had his 2-straight 3-point game with a goal and 2 helpers.  Iginla’s ENG was his 6th marker of the season, tying Todd Bertuzzi for the team lead after Bertuzzi notched the first goal of the game.

   The story, though, was Brandon Prust scoring his first NHL goal in the first period, which turned out to be the GWG.

   Those wondering is Miikka Kiprusoff was worthy of his $8.5-million salary for this year, can back off.  Kipper came up with his 3rd straight solid puckstopping show making 23 saves.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.