That’s how it went for the Flames on Thursday losing 2-1 in OT at Phoenix ending a trip were they annexed 4 of a possible 6 points but missed a chance to get into a playoff position.

  As sharp and intense as the Flames were in winning 4-3 in San Jose on Wednesday, they were well off the mark in the first 2 periods against the Coyotes.

  By then they were behind 1-0 and being outshot 22-14 after getting only 4 shots on net in the 2nd period.  As GM Jay Feaster stated during our 2nd intermission interview, “there are a large number of Flame fans at the game but we aren’t giving them anything to cheer about.”

  That changed in the 3rd period when they Flames came out intent on playing one strong period and pulling out a win.  At the 4:01 mark, Ollie Jokinen continued his hot shooting with scoring his 4th goal in 2 games.  That was all the Flames would get against Coyote goalie Mike Smith despite some good chances.

  In OT, the Flames didn’t have Alex Tanguay, who was hit in the face with a puck in the first period but tried to play later before calling it a night.  Then Michel Backlund was penalized for tripping.  On the Coyotes’ 4-on-3 PP the Flames blocked shots before Shane Doan struck for the winning goal at 3:05.  Blair Jones’ stopped a shot on the ankle and was completely out of position hobbling around trying to help.

  That goal spoiled a good night for Leland Irving, who was making his first start in the Flames nets since the 9-0 loss in Boston on Jan.5.  He made 33 saves, admitting the first goal between his legs by Taylor Pyatt he’d like to have back.

  With Minnesota and Dallas both losing, the Coyotes climbed into 8th place with 60 points, two ahead of the Flames, Wild and Stars.

  Now its home for two games.  Vancouver on Saturday and Toronto on Tuesday.

In the best of the 54 games the Calgary Flames have played this season, the club’s Finland-connection made the big impact.

Olli Jokinen was part of all the scoring and Miikka Kiprusoff made sure the San Jose Sharks didn’t get enough scoring in a 4-3 win on Wednesday.

The Flames pulled to within one point of a playoff spot in the Western Conference with an opportunity to vault into the top 8 with a game in Phoenix on Thursday.

Jokinen, who had been goalless in 16 games before stopping in for a Big Mac last weekend before scoring on Friday ending his goals slump, continued his hot scoring with his 2nd “hat trick” as a Flames and also assisted on Jarome Iginla’s 21st marker of the season. Jokinen was quick to note a burger wasn’t part of his diet Wednesday. “Once every 4 years is enough.”

Kiprusoff made 34 save scoring his 300th career win becoming just the 27th goalie in NHL history to join the club.

Kiprusoff was especially brilliant in the 3rd period when the Sharks pressed for the tying goal with all their big gunners getting chances including a “scorpion” like stop in the game’s final minute.

To get enough wins to get to the post season, the Flames can’t have any passengers. They didn’t have any in this contest against the Pacific Division leaders, who they finally beat after 5-straight losses.

Miikka Kiprusoff played as good as he’s ever played in Anaheim but still suffered another loss.  This time it was eight-shooters deep into a shootout before losing 3-2 Monday to the Ducks.  It was the Flames 14th straight loss within the shadows of Disneyland.  Kiprusoff has been the goalie in 10 of them.

Prior to Monday, Kipper’s GAA in Anaheim was 3.91, but he was brilliant in this one.  He yielded a pair of goals late in the first period 1:59 apart as the Ducks secured a 2-0 lead. Kipper slammed the door after as his teammates mounted a comeback.

Alex Tanguay scored in the 2nd period and Jarome Iginla tallied in the 3rd to force OT.

The Flames succumbed 3-2 in the shootout. The problem was the Flames didn’t have any more players available who’s last name started with a ‘J’.

Ollie Jokinen and Blair Jones scored!!!  Tim Jackman was in the line-up but not available after a head hit from Lucas Sbisa in the third period.

Generally, a team coming back as the Flames did in this one would have left the game feeling good. But with points so important now letting one slip away meant a quiet 45-minute flight from Anaheim to San Jose after the match.

The deficit from 8th place is now 3 points for Brent Sutter’s squad, which faces the Sharks on Wednesday in place where they have lost 4-in-a-row.

  However, the Conference landscape is much different.

  A year ago the trumpets were heralding the best playoff race ever in the West.  Positions 4 through 12 were separated by 4 points. Having won 4-straight games to close out January of 2011 there was talk of the hot Flames finishing as high as 4th and getting home ice advantage for the opening round of playoffs.  They were among 8 team vying for 5 playoff spots.

  In the end, the Flames faded wouldn’t make it to the post-season.

  Now with 14 points separating the #4 West position from the 12th, fewer playoff spots appear up for grabs.

  Where the Flames were one point away from 8th place a year ago they are now 3 in arrears heading into Wednesday’s action during which the Flames are idle.

  Breaking it down, last year starting February, the Flames were among 8 teams looking for 5 playoff positions. Now they are among 5 clubs seeking what appears to be just one post-season spot up for grabs.

  Los Angeles Kings improved play since Darryl Sutter went behind the bench has seen them pull away gaining a good hold on the #7 position and could well move up. The Flames are 8 points behind the 7th place Kings.

  So, unless any of the top 7 clubs in the West take dramatic falls, the #8 post is all that’s available for the Flames to be playing beyond April 7.

  The positive news, is the schedule.  Brent Sutter’s crew still have 12 games left against the 5 teams they are in the mix with for 8th. That’s 4 against both Phoenix and Dallas plus 2 each against Minnesota and Colorado.

  Little room for any lengthy stumbles as Thursday the Flames look to end a 2-game losing streak.

  Playing the  NHL’s best team, the Flames took the Detroit Red Wings into the 2nd half of the 3rd period tied at 1-1 before the patient Wings pulled away with a pair of goals.

  The Flames had chances, but couldn’t solve Jimmy Howard 5-on-5. The only goal coming on a 2nd period PP from Mike Cammalleri. The Flames outshot the Wings, 29-25.

  Brent Sutter’s squad kept the Wing scoring stars off the scoresheet.  However, they couldn’t stop the lesser lights as Cory Emmerton, Jiri Hudler and Drew Miller scored for Detroit.

   The only good news came from the Subway Restaurant Out-of-Town where the Flames didn’t lose any ground in the chase for a playoff spot.  They remain3 points behind 8th place Minnesota.  However, a win would have cut the deficit to one.

  Prior to the game Ollie Jokinen advised, “We have to play every game like its a playoff game.  We may have to win alot of game 1-0 or 2-1.”

  However, a team still needs to score more goals than the opponent to win and the top snipers need to step up.  Cammalleri’s marker was his first in 5 games.  Jarome Iginla has one goal in 7 contests. Jokinen hasn’t score in 15-straight contests. Alex Tanguay has one tally in the last 13 games he’s played. Mikael Backlund, the #1 line centre now, has 4 goals in 35 games.  Lee Stempniak, who 3 games ago became the first Flame to notch a “hat trick” was injured late in the first period with a lower body injury and could be out a while.

  As well, the team greatly misses Curtis Glencross, who missed his 4th game with a knee injury of his own.  The winger, who has 18 goals tying Iginla for the team lead, is gone for at least another month.

  The most telling stat is the fact the Flames are 5 games over .500 in the Scotiabank Saddledome but have scored just 55 goals in  23 home assignments.  That’s lowest goal total at home of any team in the league.

  Another challenge Friday when Chicago is in the ‘Dome.

  The Flames have a similiar domination going now against their provincial rivals.

  Lee Stempniak’s “hat trick”, the first by a Flame this season, on Saturday in Edmonton,was the latest Flame mastery over the Oilers.

  The 6-2 triumph marked the Flames 9th straight win over the Oilers and 16th over the past 17 games.  The lone Oiler win was their first meeting of the 2010-11 season when Edmonton gained a 4-0 win.  That was the night, in Edmonton, when Steve MacIntyre ko’ed Raitis Ivanens with one punch in the 3rd period putting the Flames’ winger out of hockey for a full year with a concussion.

  The only knockout punch thrown Saturday was the Flames’ total control  of the game, which started 6:48 in when Mikael Backlund opened the scoring.

  It was the Flames 4th straight win this season over the Oilers clinching a win of the season series for a third straight year. 

 Tom Renney, in his 2nd season as Edmonton coach, lamented after the Dec. 10 loss in Calgary that his club was at a disavantage in the first 3 meetings.  He pointed all that the young Oilers played the night before on all 3 clashes while the Flames rested.

  There was no such edge this time.  Both team had played their previous 2 games out of the porovince on Tuesday and  Thursday.  Both flew a little better than 3 hours to the provincial capital on Friday.  Neither played the night prior.

  Stempniak’s 3 goals and one assist with a +5 rating was the highlight for his line with Ollie Jokinen, who hasa 2 assists and Blake Comeau, who had a goal and 2 assists for his most productive night as a Flame.

  Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester had a goal and 2 helpers as well.

  Six points out of 6 would have made last week a perfect 3-game trip, but nobody was complaining having gained 5 points out of 6 keeping the Flames within a couple of points out of the 8th and final playoff sport in the West Conference.

  Now a Tuesday home classh against San Jose before taking a week off for the All-Star break.  Another win the departure on Wednesday will be even more enjoyable.

In a news briefing called to update the teams’ 8 injured players, Feaster got emotional underscoring that injuries would not be an excuse. The less said, about the better noting he didn’t want it to become a crutch for the team.

Then Feaster’s Flames went out and won 2-1 in a shootout over the LA Kings.

They superbly executed a game plan designed to make the game’s pace slow and a plan necessary to have a shot at success when forced to play without regular players.

This type of disciplined structure requires brilliant goaltending and again Miikka Kiprusoff provided that.  He made 31 saves over 65 minutes and plus another on 2 shots in the shootout.

He gave up a goal 3:28 into the game to Dustin Brown.
The Flames got that one back with another necessary ingredient to survive, a PPG from Jarome Iginla.

In the shootout, the Flames scored on both shots on Jonathan Quick and the deciding tally by Mike Cammalleri.

The win ended a 6-game road losing streak and the first win in LA after 4-straight losses.

The Flames head to Edmonton for Saturday’s game just 2 pts out of a playoff spot.

….And the injuries Feaster reported about. The worst news is that top goalgetter Curtis Glencross is on IR with a knee injury. He’ll be out for a while. The good news is that Alex Tanguay and Brendan Morrison could play as soon as Saturday.

The other 5?  Getting closer to playing, but not real close.
Enough said.

….The good news is they got a point against a strong Shark team in San Jose on Tuesday.

The bad new is losing the second point plus their top goal scorer in the 2-1 shootout setback.

Curtis Glencross and his 18 goals left the game in the 2nd period with a suspected knee injury.

The LW, on his way to having a career year will be evaluated Wednesday by team doctors back in Calgary.

He will miss the remaining 2 games of the trip at the very least and likely longer.

The Flames played a solid game vs the Sharks. Perhaps their in San Jose since the 2004 playoff series  and held a 1-0 lead to the midway point of the 3rd period.

The Sharks tied the game when Torrey Mitchell scored at 10:44.of the 3rd.

Playing with 10 forwards — basically 3 lines — the Flames battled through the remainder of the 3rd period plus OT but couldn’t get another goal against Antti Niemi.

Including the shootout when Jarome Iginla and Mike Cammalleri had opportunities. The Sharks got 2 goals on 3 shootout shots.

Now a date is Los Angeles on Thursday where the Kings have just one regulation loss in 15 games since Darryl Sutter took over as coach.

  With the Scotiabank Saddledome crowd still buzzing about the deal that brought Mike Cammalleri back to Calgary, Blair Jones sent them home even happier scoring 1:51 into OT with an assist from Mark Giordano, who was returning the Flame lineup after being sidelined since Nov.29 wih a hamstring injury.

  Jones was acquired from Tampa last Friday for minor league defenseman Brendan Mikkelsson and in all 3 games he’s played with the Flames the team has come out on top.

  Flame fans feel the Flames came out on top of their Thursday night barter with Montreal which returned Cammalleri to Calgary in exchange for suspended winger Rene Bourque.  The Flame also got goaltender Kari Ramo, who is playing in the KHL in Russia, and a 5th round draft pick in 2012.  They surrendered Bourque, a 2nd round pick in 2013 plus prospect Patrick Holland.

  In assessment, Cammalleri gives the Flames the best player in the transaction.  The LW didn’t want to leave Calgary after he scored 39 goals in the 2008-09 season but when then GM Darryl Sutter expressed little interest in re-signing him, he went into the free agency signing a 5-year, $30M deal with the Canadiens.

  Cammalleri was a member of the last Flame team to make the playoffs in ’09 and the following  spring was the key scorer in the Canadiens march to the Eastern Conference.

  With 9 goals in 37 games this season, Cammalleri had fallen out of favor with Montreal fans, who booed him heavily in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to St. Louis.  The next day the winger made some controversal comments but the defeated attitude some of his teammates were exhibiting.

  He was on the ice for 9 minutes with the Habs in Boston on Thursday night before being pulled from the game and later informed of the trade.

  Cammalleri will make his Flame debut on Saturday in the finale of the 4-game homestand against the Los Angeles Kings.  Who his linemates will be, remains to be seen.

  It’s unlikely Brent Sutter will break up the #1 line of Jokinen-Iginla-Glencross, but Feaster said Cammalleri could be the key to a strong #2 line and would be a boost to the PP.

  Feaster also stated the trade was all about getting to the playoff this season.  After Thursday’s action the Flames are 3 points behind 7th and 8th place in the Western Conference and could close the gap even more with a Saturday win.

  That’s just one of the interesting aspects from a strange 6-3 Flame win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

  It was a strange game on-the-ice producing some strange-but-term historic notes.

  Iginla was #1 star for a second straight game. He had a goal, 2 assists and a fight, which was the 10th time in his career the Flame captain has notched the a goal, assist and a scrap in a game.  That’s commonly known as a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick”.

  It was the Elias Sports Bureau revealing that Howe in his great NHL career actually only had 2 games where he had a goal, assist and a fight.  That’s 8 less than Iginla.

  The Devils’ rookie Adam Henrique, who fought Iginla, also had a goal and assist to go with the fight.  A first in his career giving him just one less than Howe.

  The Flames, with their best scoreing period of the season, took a 4-0 lead in the first period in the process chasing veteran Martin Brodeur from the nets after the 2nd goal.  Flame defensemen Jay Bouwmeester, Corey Sarich and T.J. Brodie had goals in the first period.  Elias Sports reports its the first time in Flames history 3 different defensemen have scored in a single period.

  It was a first for LW Curtis Glencross netting his first career 4-point game with a goal and 3 assists.

  After the first period the Devils took command of the game outshooting the Flames 32-6 in those 40 minuites and only the great work of  Miikka Kiprusoff  kept the Blues from overcoming their 4-goal deficit.

  While the Flames had only 14 shots on goal all night. It could be said scoring on six of them might have been their best shooting percentage ever.  Elias didn’t have that info immediately following the game.

  The win was the Flames 7-in-a-row in the Saddledome matching their best in three years.  They’ll attempt to make it 8 on Thursday vs Anaheim.