Flames remain perfect on road trip

The Calgary Flames continued their impressive six-game road trip with a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night in Raleigh, N.C.

Defenceman Dion Phaneuf scored the game winner with less than 10 minutes remaining in the third period and goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff made 33 saves.

With the scored tied 3-3, Phaneuf pounced on the puck following a face-off win by Matthew Lombardi and snapped a shot that beat Carolina goaltender Cam Ward between the legs at 11:48 of the final period.

"We were playing a desperate team," Phaneuf said. "It was a big win for our team to be able to just keep plugging and plugging and plugging, and get the win and persevere through a tough game of back and forth."

Faced with the tough job of playing away from home for an extended period of time, the Flames (15-13-5) have been up to the challenge thus far.

After a 3-2 win Sunday at Chicago and a 2-1 shootout victory Tuesday against Florida, the Flames crushed Tampa Bay 9-6 on Thursday night.

"We've had a lot of travel and we've been getting in at two, three, four and five in the morning," said Flames coach Mike Keenan, who earned his 599th career victory.

"So you don't get much sleep, much rest. But we're a well-trained team, a fit team, and that's helped us. And you could see we had enough energy — just barely enough tonight — to get through it."

Carolina (16-14-3) looked like one of the NHL's best teams earlier this season, but has struggled to a 5-10-0 record in the last 14 games, including a 3-6-0 mark at home.

Jarome Iginla, Kristian Huselius and Dustin Boyd also scored for the Flames, who improved to 4-0 on their six-game road trip.

Had edge in shots

Matt Cullen had a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, who continue to slump despite outshooting Calgary 36-21.

Carolina carried much of the action, creating several good scoring opportunities against Kiprusoff.

But the Calgary goaltender turned aside the Hurricanes for most of the game, while the Flames netted a couple of opportunistic goals off Carolina turnovers to gain an early lead before heading into the final eight minutes tied at 3-3.

Calgary's penalty-kill unit came up big in the final six minutes, holding the Hurricanes to only two shots on a pair of power plays.

The Hurricanes converted only one power play on eight chances.

"I thought that the effort was good," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "The results were obviously not good. We looked for chances. We hunted them, worked for them and obviously came up with the short end of the stick.

"Tonight we showed up and worked, but … maybe you have to
just dig a little more."

It was Calgary's first visit to Carolina since the teams played to a 3-3 tie on March 11, 2002. The Flames are now 4-1-0 with one tie in their last five overall meetings with the Hurricanes.

With files from the Associated Press

Back

Flames remain perfect on road trip

Related Stories

SEARCH

CITY GUIDE