It was Mikka Kipprusoff’s 34th birthday and the Flames were up 4-1 in the second period.  There was a lot of this:

FREE HUGS!

And a lot of this, just because.  6 fighting majors were doled out during the game, along with an instigator penalty and 2 roughing minors.

Then Kipper started thinking about the sieve-shaped birthday cake Dawn was baking for him and gave up 3 goals in 10 minutes, resulting in a lot of this:

Lobster on the right, paying the price.

So we went to overtime, then to a shootout.  And this happened:

High score? What does that mean? Did I break it?

Ultimately the end result was:

Iginla's bet is paying off.

Both goaltenders were a mess – from standing on their hands to dropping their pants on alternating shifts.  There was a fight every 5 minutes, and twice they had to stop going to commercial because a dust-up broke out after the whistle.  One fight the cameraman couldn’t find till it was almost over.

The moral of the story is Alex Tanguay is playing great and I still don’t have him back on my fantasy team.  But I do believe in him, especially if he keeps making rink-wide slot passes like he did for Bouwmeester’s goal last night.  PS: Excellent last name. Almost as many useless letters as Antero Niittymaki.

Photos: Calgary Sun

Please watch this video of George Parros fighting with Jody Shelley.  Yes they fight all the time, mustache vs. girls’ name, but listen to the background noise at 0:12 – is that the sound of a boxing bell?  It’s playing in the arena, right?  OMG, it’s the first and only thing I’ve ever loved about the Flyers.

Let's get ready to...

I can’t get past the Flyers’ jersey nameplates.  It looks like something a soccer mom made with medical tape from the AAA first aid kit in her minivan.

Marc-Andre Fleury was back in goal for the Pens last night vs. Nashville, and had a very close call in OT.  The puck went over his shoulder and bounced around at the goal line before Pascal Dupuis cleared it with a diving save.  Whew! Flower looked okay, not great, and you know Brent Johnson’s on the bench licking his chops. Love ya, Johnny but I still believe in Flower Power.

Yes, that's the doorstep.

Fifteen seconds later, Kris Letang buried a beauty of a slapshot for the winner.  He scored the same goal on Monday vs. Ottawa.  Also, Letang’s misconduct penalty for the 10/15 hit to Isles’ Comeau was rescinded because I said so.  Way to go, Team Tanger!

Johan Franzen said “In your face!” to last Fridays’ foxy Mikka Kipprusoff – and he meant it.  Franzen banked the puck off Kipper’s mask for the game-winning goal last night in Detroit.  If hockey doesn’t work out he could always get a job in Vegas playing trick-shot billiards.

Face/Puck

The Coyotes’ Lee Stempniak scored a hat trick in Phoenix, where they downed the Kings 4-2.  Only 6,706 attended the game.  The one and only BizNasty had this to say on Twitter: “Guess we actually had more then 5000 fans for our game. Didn’t realize it was dress like a seat night. Close to a sell out.”  It looked like this (AZ Republic):

If the goal light goes on and there's no one to see it...

The latest in Phoenix’s financial despair is best distilled at Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, but frankly the whole thing is too depressing to read.  They need an NHL-assisted suicide. Let’s just decide where they should move to already – suggestions?  Re-open franchises in Quebec City or Winnipeg?  (This guy wants it.)  Think of it this way – the Minnesota Wild had their first ever non-sell out in team history for an exhibition game on 9/23.  That’s right, they sell out EVERY GAME, including 27 home pre-season games leading to this one.  You could put a new team in the Wild’s parking lot and consistently sell more tickets than Phoenix.  So what are the other options?  Milwaukee?  Seattle (Dawn!)?

God bless his clueless gaping ...

Um ... yeah.

Hey Calgary, I pet sit for a cat who is probably a better back-up goal tender than this guy and he comes really cheap! You just throw dry kibble at him and he’s total gold!