Iggy leads the charge

Calgary’s captain Jarome Iginla was at his crashing, bashing best on Saturday night as he led his Calgary Flames out of the gate and onto a convincing 3-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Iginla scored two goals for the second night in a row, crashing the net, crashing the boards and delivering big hits at key times to spur on the rest of the Flames. The win gives the Flames a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series and the opportunity to advance to the next round with a victory on Monday night in Anaheim.

The Flames played in your face hockey all night long in the hard hitting and fast paced game. Chasing Duck goal tender J. S. Giguere from the game in the second period after surrendering three goals on eight shots. It was a shaky performance for Giguere who had played above and beyond the call in game four back in Anaheim.

The change of goaltenders caught the attention of the Ducks, who played with a bit more attention to their own end for the rest of the second and third periods, as Ilya Bryzgalov stopped all 19 shots he faced in relief of the shaky Giguere.

Anaheim took advantage of the power play in the third two score twice and put some pressure on the Flames in the final minutes of the game. On the whole the game was not as close as the score would indicate, Calgary won most of the battles on this night, led by Iginla who basically picked the team up and carried it on his shoulders for most of the night.

When he’s on his game as he has been the last couple of nights, you just sense how great a player he has become over the last few years. He now is one of those dominating presences on the ice, the guy you just expect to do something big at a key time.

The Flames move on to Anaheim for game six on Monday night, Randy Carlyle has a big decision to make regarding his goal tender for that game. However, it may be a moot point by game time, if Iginla is in the same kind of state of mind on Monday and Kiprusoff continues with his stellar play in the Calgary net, it will be a tough night of skating on the Pond ice for the Ducks