Put it in the Past

WEEK IN REVIEW:
Sunday September 21: Ridge Meadows defeated the Grandview Steelers 3-2 from a late effort from Grant Rostvig.

For Mission City Outlaw players and fans, this is one to remember, but for the Flames side, it is quite the opposite.

The first period was filled with Flames penalties, as they went down real early. As myself and my colour commentator Bill Reims attested to throughout the game, the left hand boards must have been cursed because the Flames were recipients to about 6 or 7 odd bounces off of said boards. This lead to the first two goals, and more to come, from the Outlaws.

The Flames left the first much less harmed than they could have been, this was due in part of the solid penalty kill and the stand out play form Kurt Klimek. It just turned out not to be Kurt's day. Ending the period 2-0 in favour of the Outlaws.

The Flames lit up in the second though as they controlled most of the play and even scoring an absolutely beautiful goal from number eighteen and Hard Hat award winner, Boston Colley. This was scored on the tail end of a power play, and was the highlight of the second for the Flames. Heading into the third, the Flames now only sdown one, with the score at 2-1.

Cue the third period dramatics. The Flames began on the power play, sounds promising, right? Wrong. The Outlaws somehow picked up 3 goals within one minute and twenty seconds. With more odd bounces and one bad give away, the Flames all of a sudden found themselves down four goals. The Outlaws went on to add one more to put the cherry on top of their away win.

After the fourth goal, head coach Jamie Fiset had to pull Klimek to attempt to save his confidence, because it is not a fun place to be in, stranded in that net, hoping you are going to crawl back to normality. Kurt should know though that what happened tonight at Cam Neely Arena can only be turned into a learning experience, and not to keep his chin down, but to look for the positives.

In a game where the Flames out shot their opponents by a large margin, it should have never been a 6-1 final. There were mistakes made in this game, that had many things factoring in to the final tally. In both of my interviews this evening, Jordan Rendle and Andrew Castagna mentioned the veteran presence in the room this season, and that may play a part in getting this teams chin off the ground after the devastating loss.

There is not much I can say as bystander to watching the game, and nothing that coach Jamie or his staff can give away to say what may or may not help this team, but there are things that need to be looked at when it comes to this Flames team. Whether that be line mixing, shuffling players, or new practice regiments, I trust that it will be reached in a positive manner.

The season is very young, only 6 games have been played and there is a long ladder to climb for every single team in the PJHL. The Flames have potential to be a number one team in this league, it is simply a question of whether or not this team will gel when it has to and when times get tough, this team can pull it together. Tonight is a night to put in the past, and becomes a learning experience for the fans, players, and coaching staff.

The Flames have a few days to recuperate as they do not play until Thursday night against the newly revamped Langley Knights at George Preston Arena.

Adding Fuel to the Flames,
Tyler Lipingwell