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Former Hab playoff hero Mike Cammalleri was not in the line up as the Montreal Canadiens began their Western Conference swing in Calgary last night. Cammalleri, who was out with an undisclosed upper body injury, was one of 15 players from both teams who would sit this one out. Calgary’s 5-4 victory was crucial for the Flames playoff chances as they managed to hold onto 11th place in the West, and are only 2 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot.

Early on in the game the players seemed to be going through the motions. That is until, midway into the first, when Curtis Glencross made Yannick Weber look like Swiss cheese as he pulled the puck through the defenseman’s skates and took a dangerous looking shot on Carey Price. The puck was cleared close to the line by Alexei Emelin and unfortunately onto the stick of Mark Giordano who fired the puck at the net where it was tipped in by David Moss. Shortly after, a determined Jarome Iginla simply outworked Tomas Plekanec on the boards and was able to skate across the goal line to tuck the puck past Price. This gave the Flames a comfortable an early 2 – 0 lead. Montreal’s PP continued to show signs as life, when Tomas Kaberle made a nice pass to Lars Eller beside the net. Eller made a quick and creative backward pass to Plekanec who buried one past Miikka Kiprusoff. The period ended with a 2-1 advantage for the Flames.

In the second period, Max Pacioretty scored his team leading 27th goal on a weak shot that slipped through the arms of Kiprusoff, tying the game at 2. Flames defenseman Giordano continued his strong game when he was left wide open at the point to fire a hard shot past Price. Making matters worse, late in the stanza, Iginla would score his second of the game on a wraparound in which Price moved lethargically from one post to the next gving the Flames a 4 -2 lead ending the second.

Both Price and Kiprusoff seemed to bring their “D” games to this one. After a lazy dump in pass, Price made a misplay of the puck behind his net and placed it onto the stick of Curtis Glencross, who gingerly put it into the wide open cage for what became the eventual game winner. Down 5 -2, the Canadiens showed some resolve and started to make a game of it. Eller would bring the Candiens within two at the halfway mark. After fanning on his first shot, Eller fell to the ice, but managed to fire the second shot off his knees from the hash marks and past Kiprusoff. Less then 4 minutes later, some hard work in front of the net by the Erik Cole line would see Pacioretty put in his 2nd of the game and bring the Habs within one. Montreal, not known for strong third periods, would put some pressure on the Flames, but ended up losing the game 5 – 4. The Habs play again against Edmonton on Thursday night.

Habs Hits

-Pacioretty currently has more goals (28) this year then Jarome Iginla (27).
-The win ended a five game losing streak for the Flames.
-Ex-Flame Rene Bourque had 0 points, 0 penalty minutes and was a minus 2.
-Former Hab and current Flame Tom Kostopoulos played in the 600th game of his career.