Iginla's hat trick lifts Flames over Kings
Scott Cruickshank, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009
LOS ANGELES
Maybe there are lonelier places on the planet.
But Jarome Iginla would have been hard-pressed to name one as he stewed by himself in the penalty box in the third period of a deadlocked game.
"Oh my gosh," said Iginla, who'd been caught tripping Justin Williams, "I'm thinking, ‘Just kill, just kill, just kill.' Then, all of a sudden . . . ."
Daymond Langkow chucks the puck deep into the right corner. Curtis Glencross recovers it, shrugs off the attention of two defenders and fires a back-handed pellet to Langkow, who coverts a short-handed beauty.
"What a huge goal by Lanks and Glennie - timely," said Iginla. "A huge swing for sure."
Iginla's relief was palpable.
"He said he felt foolish," said Langkow, chortling. "It was all quiet (in the rink) and he was yelling in the penalty box. He was pretty pumped to see that go in."
With good reason.
Langkow's heroics shoved the Calgary Flames ahead 3-2 with less than 13 minutes remaining. From there, the travellers stomped to a 5-2 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings in National Hockey League action Saturday at the Staples Center.
Iginla's contributions, though, had not been limited to opening the door for shorties. The Flames captain also scored. Three times.
But coach Brent Sutter liked more than Iginla's goals.
"A whale of a game. Rock solid in a lot of areas."
And he liked more than Iginla.
"Our overall game," said the coach. "We were assertive. We played an intelligent game. We did a good job of really hounding the puck, being strong on pucks."
None stronger than Iginla, who put the finishing touch on his ninth career hat trick by burying a rebound - as Steve Yzerman looked on from the press box. The Team Canada boss's presence, claims Iginla, came as news to him.
"Was he?" he said innocently. "This is the first I've heard of it. OK, well. I don't know what to say."
Thankfully, Yzerman hadn't been forced to witness Thursday's 7-1 shelling.
Sutter, in the aftermath of that stinker against the Chicago Blackhawks, had expressed shock at the "casual" nature of his squad.
He'd publicly questioned its sense of urgency, its top players. And, two days later, what do you know? Both issues get answered on the first shift.
Iginla took a pass from Olli Jokinen, who'd taken a pass from Jamie Lundmark, and rifled in a long wrister.
That boost arrived 13 ticks into the afternoon.
"You could tell (Iginla) was keyed in right from the start," said Sutter, "and that just flows through the rest of the guys."
Which is precisely what the skipper had wanted to see - a response from his downtrodden troops.
"We definitely take to heart what he says," said Iginla. "We've been a little tight lately on the ice. I thought (Saturday) we had that good mix of ready-to-work and ready-to-compete, but positive and relaxed at the same time. We definitely take it to heart when we're said to be too casual. We like to take pride in working hard and getting results off of that.
"It's finding that balance where we're still enjoying the game, enjoying competing. It's got to be fun."
Despite appearances, Langkow added the team does all it can to be ready for every match.
"I've played over 900 games," he said, "and it's tough to get up for every game. And that's not making excuses. This is our job and we have to be prepared and, obviously, (Thursday) we weren't. But we met as a group and tried to sort some things out.
"And, obviously, a great effort (Saturday)."
After a one-minute sputter - Drew Doughty scored at 3:22 of the second period, Alexander Frolov scored 38 seconds later - the Flames recovered. Unlike Thursday.
"We did a good job holding our composure," said Iginla. "Especially last game, they started going in quick on us - and often. Brent called that timeout (after Frolov's tally) and we were able to get our feet under us."
It showed.
After that, the Calgarians offered the Kings few peeks at Miikka Kiprusoff. The hosts managed only five shots in the final 20 minutes, during which David Moss capped the scoring with a power-play tip.
"I can't even think of one odd-man rush we gave up," said Sutter. "We were really solid."
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