After what some believed to be the team’s best performance two nights prior against the Blackhawks, The Calgary Flames sputtered out of the gate to allow two first period goals to the 30th placed Columbus BlueJackets. That deficit ultimately proved to be too much for the Flames to counter, as the team dropped their 10th game of the season in a 4-1 defeat in Columbus on Monday night.

PHOTO CREDIT - CalgaryFlames.com

Calgary - November 22, 2011 - After what some believed to be the team’s best performance two nights prior against the Blackhawks, The Calgary Flames sputtered out of the gate to allow two first period goals to the 30th placed Columbus BlueJackets. That deficit ultimately proved to be too much for the Flames to counter, as the team dropped their 10th game of the season in a 4-1 defeat in Columbus on Monday night.

Twenty seven year old Henrik Karlsson appeared in his fifth game of the year stopping 26 of the 29 shots fired his way on the evening, but was unable to slow the momentum of the BlueJackets in the early stages of the game. Columbus managed to score two goals on their first nine shots of the game, thanks in large part to forwards Jeff Carter and Antoine Vermette. The first period really was a tale of two tapes as the Flames found themselves getting outshot by a 9-1 margin by the midway mark of the frame. After getting there skating legs back, Calgary pushed hard in the remaining minutes of the period managing to even the shot totals before the buzzer sounded.

Penalty troubles struck the team early in the second as rookie defensemen T.J Brodie and veteran forward Alex Tanguay took consecutive infractions to go down two men for an extended period of time. Columbus took full advantage of their opportunity as they effortlessly worked the puck around the zone before Jeff Carter netted his second goal of the night past the “Calgary Tower” Henrik Karlsson. With the game slipping away, Mark Giordano wired a gorgeous wrist shot off of the far side post past starting goaltender Curtis Sanford. The game headed into the third with Columbus up by a pair of goals.

You would generally expect a strong third period push from the team trailing, but that was not the case in tonight’s matchup. Instead flames fan’s suffered through a period of individual efforts that resulted in absolutely nothing offensively. Leading the charge in that regard was Flames captain Jarome Iginla who yet again struggled immensely to get anything generated, it’s clear that he is frustrated with his play but has been unable to break of the slump as of late. The standout performance for the Flames tonight was undoubtedly that of T.J Brodie, He was rewarded by head coach Brent Sutter with over 17 minutes of ice-time and was recognizably on the ice for what seemed to be every second shift in the latter moments of the game.

Tonight marked the first of a four game road trip that includes stops in Detroit, St. Louis and Minnesota. To this point in the season the Calgary Flames have not been able to string together a win streak that has lasted longer than two games. With the loss tonight they drop to 8-10-1 on the season and continue their win one - lose one trend that has plagued them for the entire season.