MaTChUP - Ottawa Sun

6
SPORTS PULLOUT
past
The Calgary Sun n Thursday, February 16, 2012
5
past
CALGARY FLAMES (27-22-8) At DALLAS STARS (28-25-3)
notes on tonight’s
matchup
Benn adapting
to front-line role
With captain Brenden
Morrow injured, the Dallas
Stars need somebody
to step forward in the
leadership role.
Jamie Benn may only be
22 — and still playing under
his entry-level contract —
but it would seem the frontline centre knows where his
future lies in the game.
After taking a penalty
which led to the Detroit
Red Wings first goal and
then losing a faceoff on
jamie benn
the marker which put
the Stars in a 2-0 deficit
during Tuesday’s 3-1 loss,
Benn stood up and pointed the finger at himself for the
disappointing defeat.
“I have to be better than that,” he told the Dallas Morning
News. “I have to take accountability for that.”
Benn also knows to put those disappointments in the past
to have the best chance going forward.
“Our playoffs have already started. We’ve all been there
in some sort of playoffs, and we have to find that level, every
one of us,” Benn added.
backlund thankful for support
While his Flames teammates jetted to Dallas for
Thursday’s date with the Stars, injured centre Mikael
Backlund went on Twitter to thanks fans for their support.
The 22-year-old Swede suffered an ‘upper-body’ injury in
Saturday’s shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks and
will be out for four-to-six weeks.
It’s another tough break for Backlund, who missed the
first 14 regular-season contests with a broken finger. In
between, he registered only four goals and seven assists in
41 outings and was saddled with an ugly minus-13 rating.
“I know I haven’t performed the way I and a lot of people
expected and been taking a lot if heat for it,” Backlund wrote
Wednesday afternoon. “But I love all the support I’ve been
giving from you guys last few days. Really frustrating and
sucks to be hurt again. Thnx to you all! #CofRed #BestFans.”
— Randy Sportak
special
teams
5
DET 3, DAL 1
LAK 4, DAL 2*
BUF 3, DAL 2 (SO)
DAL 4, CBJ 2
PHX 4, DAL 1*
* — home games
CAL 5, TOR 1*
CAL 3, VAN 2 (SO)*
PHX 2, CAL 1 (OT)
CAL 4, SJS 3
ANA 3, CAL 2 (SO)
* — home games
Tonight, 6:30 p.m., American Airlines Center
TV: TSN / Radio: Sportsnet 960
flames gameday lines
Left wing
Centre
Alex Tanguay
Olli Jokinen
Tom Kostopoulos
Michael Cammalleri
Lance Bouma
Roman Horak
Paul Byron
Matt Stajan
Defence pairings
Chris Butler
Jay Bouwmeester
Mark Giordano
Scott Hannan
T.J. Brodie
Cory Sarich
Right wing
Jarome Iginla
Blake Comeau
Krys Kolanos
Tim Jackman
Goalies
Miikka Kiprusoff
Leland Irving
stars gameday lines
Left wing
Centre
Steve Ott
Jamie Benn
Loui Eriksson
Mike Ribeiro
Eric Nystrom
Vernon Fiddler
Jake Dowell
Tom Wandell
Defence pairings
Nicklas Grossman
Trevor Daley
Alex Goligoski
Stephane Robidas
Philip Larsen
Mark Fistric
g miikka kiprusoff
The Flames’ best players are
stepping up, especially the netminder who blocked 41 shots
against the Leafs to give him a
third straight ‘W’ and a 4-0-1 run.
LW tom kostopoulos
Has a bigger role in the
last couple of games
but has no points in
19 games and hasn’t
scored since Dec. 10.
Right wing
Tomas Vincour
Michael Ryder
Radek Dvorak
Adam Burish
Goalies
Kari Lehtonen
Richard Bachman
rW michael ryder
A 21-goal scorer this season,
he has a three-game point
streak and managed seven
points (4-3-7) in eight outings since the all-star break.
rw radek dvorak
The veteran winger
hasn’t scored a goal
since Dec. 1 and has
failed to even net a point
in the last 13 games.
injuries
FLAMES — C Mikael Backlund (upper body), C Blair Jones (ankle),
LW Curtis Glencross (knee), RW Lee Stempniak (ankle), D Derek
Smith (ankle) and RW David Moss (foot) are out.
STARS — D Sheldon Souray (foot) is day-to-day. LW Brenden
Morrow (back/neck) is out.
players
stats
FLAMES
Skaters
GP G A Pts +/- PIM
13 Olli Jokinen
57 18 30 48 4 40
12 Jarome Iginla
57 22 24 46 -4 30
20 Curtis Glencross 45 18 15 33 -4 24
40 Alex Tanguay
41 7 24 31 3 22
22 Lee Stempniak
51 12 12 24 -1 14
4 Jay Bouwmeester
57 4 18 22 -10 18
5 Mark Giordano
36 4 10 14 2 34
44 Chris Butler
57 2 11 13 -3 30
7 T.J. Brodie
43 2 10 12 -1 12
10 Blake Comeau
37 4 7 11 -2 14
11 Mikael Backlund
41 4 7 11 -13 16
27 Derek Smith
32 2 8 10 2 12
51 Roman Horak
44 3 7 10 4 14
23 Scott Hannan
53 1 8 9 -6 18
16 Tom Kostopoulos 56 3 5 8 -12 48
15 Tim Jackman
57 1 6 7 -17 71
18 Matt Stajan
36 1 5 6 -9 21
93 Michael Cammalleri 12 3 2 5 -6 6
33 Anton Babchuk
17 0 5 5 1 2
32 Paul Byron
19 3 1 4 3 2
6 Cory Sarich
41 1 2 3 -4 52
19 Blair Jones
13 1 2 3 1 6
57 Lance Bouma
14 1 1 2 1 9
8 Krys Kolanos
6 0 0 0 1 2
Goalies
GP W L OT SO GAA SV%
34 M. Kiprusoff 49 26 17 4 3 2.27 .922
37 Leland Irving 5 1 1 3 0 3.26 .915
stars
Skaters
14 Jamie Benn
21 Loui Eriksson
73 Michael Ryder
63 Mike Ribeiro
29 Steve Ott
33 Alex Goligoski
10 Brenden Morrow
20 Radek Dvorak
44 Sheldon Souray
38 Vernon Fiddler
24 Eric Nystrom
3 Stephane Robidas
6 Trevor Daley
16 Adam Burish
23 Tom Wandell
36 Philip Larsen
2 Nicklas Grossman
81 Tomas Vincour
17 Toby Petersen
11 Jake Dowell
27 Adam Pardy
58 Jordie Benn
48 Francis Wathier
28 Mark Fistric
Goalies
GP
32 Kari Lehtonen 37
31 R. Bachman 13
GP G A Pts +/- PIM
51 17 32 49 13 47
56 18 30 48 9 6
56 21 18 39 11 26
49 11 26 37 0 40
50 8 18 26 4 111
45 7 17 24 -4 12
43 8 14 22 2 74
56 3 16 19 -11 12
47 5 13 18 11 59
56 7 11 18 -9 34
51 15 3 18 -4 18
50 4 13 17 -4 28
53 4 12 16 1 18
40 5 8 13 2 52
51 3 8 11 -5 14
29 1 5 6 7 6
52 0 5 5 0 26
24 2 3 5 -5 2
34 2 2 4 -7 6
39 1 2 3 -5 41
22 0 1 1 -8 8
2 0 1 1 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0
40 0 0 0 -1 29
W L OT SO GAA SV%
20 14 2 1 2.44 .918
6 3 1 1 2.72 .912
HEADTOHEAD
This is the first of the four meetings this
season, and based on recent history, the
Flames were looking forward to them. The
Flames won all four meetings last year.
Flames: PP 17.3% (32-185, 16th), PK 83.8% (10th); Stars: PP 14.1% (25-177, 27th), PK 81% (21st)