Roman Large in Former Haunt 

Flames Hang On Tie League's Best


February 19th, 2002
Rick Charlton

Drury Conroy Iginla
Gelinas Johansson Saprykin
Niedermayer Yelle Clark
Berube Johansson Nichol
Gauthier Boughner
Lydman Regehr
Leopold Ference

Roman Turek remains the quintessential riddle wrapped in an enigma.

Publicly blamed a week ago by GM Craig Button as the central reason for the Flames floperoo of a season, Turek effectively stood on his head with a 38 save performance in Dallas last night, the single biggest reason Calgary came away with a 1-1 tie.

Although surrendering the tying goal with less than five minutes remaining to Scott Young, Turek was the difference the Flames had been counting on for much of this season against the NHL's best team.

The single point earned by the Flames temporarily halted their drive for the bottom of the standings and the number one pick overall in next summer's NHL draft, Calgary now 18-29-10-4 on the season for 50 points and dead last in the Western Conference.

Calgary hasn't won in six games, 0-4-2 in that span and now two points divorced from idle 14th place Columbus in the West.

Flames are 15 points out of the playoffs.

Calgary is also two points up on Atlanta and four points ahead of Buffalo in the Toilet Bowl race for last overall in the NHL, an ignomious prize that carries some benefits given the winner is likely to select first overall in the coming draft.

Flames dominated the first period and took an early lead on Oleg Saprykin's fifth of the season, a power play goal as the youngster drove to the front of the net and pumped a shot through the pads of Dallas starter Ron Tugnutt at 4:45.

It was the sixth straight game the Flames have scored a power play goal.

Craig Conroy hit the post/crossbar later in the period but the second frame saw Dallas gradually take over the contest, inspired perhaps by a controversial penalty call when Flames defenceman Bob Boughner was booted from the contest after hitting Stars forward Mike Modano hard from behind into the boards.

2003 Draft Watch

If the draft was held today ...

Pick Team Player*
1 Buffalo Nikolai Zherdev
2 Atlanta Marc Andre Fleury
3 Carolina Eric Stall
4 Calgary Nathan Horton
5 Columbus Milan Michalek
*ranking: McKeen's 2/13/03

Boughner was immediately jumped by Bill Guerin with the Dallas forward given a ten minute misconduct.

With Turek standing tall on numerous close-in opportunities and deflections it wasn't until 15:50 of the third that Modano bounced a pass to the blueline where Young one-timed a hopper through the pads of the Flames netminder.

"They had us back on our heels there a little bit," admitted Jordan Leopold after the game. "We stuck with it and Large was great in the net and that's what we needed from him."

Leopold continued his strange love/hate relationship with coach Sutter, the rookie defenceman the primary beneficiary of Boughner's ejection, finishing the game with 27:42 in ice time to lead the Flames.

Leopold's ice time under Sutter the last few weeks has had more highs and lows than the Dallas Six Flags roller coaster.

The Boughner ejection was made all the more galling since the same crime was committed only minutes later by Stars Darien Hatcher on Flames Blake Sloan but drew only a minor penalty.

Stephane Yelle nearly won the game only minutes after Young's marker, breaking in free on Tugnutt on a fine Jarome Iginla pass but hitting the post on a backhand.

Shots were 39-27 in favour of Dallas.

Next up is Nashville, a game the Flames must win to ... too late. Way too late. The fat lady has already sung and hung up her horns on this season. The only thing left to do is sweep up the popcorn.

Get Your Calgarypuck Gear!

 

 

SCOREBOARD

Calgary Flames 1
Dallas Stars 1

1 Roman Turek - It's the absence of nights like this that has the Flames questioning their goaltending but Turek occasionally - and maddeningly - shows what he's capable of. 

2 Sergei Zubov - One of the great, if unsung, offensive defencemen in the game, smooth and controlled and dangerous all night. 

3 Toni Lydman - Could eventually be what Zubov is and matched the Dallas defenceman stride for stride.

In the final minute of the first period with the Flames leading 1-0, Turek slid on his knees across the crease to successfully confront a short-range Bill Guerin one-timer.

 

Maybe not the most clean of events, but Bob Boughner gets the nod for pounding Mike Modano into the boards from behind. The hit was all the more interesting given Boughner and Craig Conroy's comments about going after Modano in retaliation to some questionable sportsmanship from Jiri Lehtinen three weeks ago.

Mattias Johansson led the Flames with a 66% winning percentage in the faceoff circle and the Flames were 51% overall. . . . . .Calgary entered the game having surrendered seven power play goals in the last five games but stopped all six Dallas man-advantage opportunities on this night. Stars are zero for their last 29 extra-man advantages. . . Iginla has a four game point streak going. . . . . . . Chris Clark has scored only once in the last 21 games. . . . . . . In case you hadn't noticed, the NHL is keeping stats like hits and blocked shots but not publicizing them after an arbitrator ordered them to following a successful NHLPA grievance . . . . . . . . Calgary is 2-7-1 on the road for Darryl Sutter, an amusing stat given he's vastly improved Calgary's home record but away from the Saddledome the Flames have tailed off noticeably.

 

  Calgarypuck.com
Read other Stories
Talk About it!

Search Here





Webmasters
Earn Money Per Click!


Most Wanted Keywords

Hockey
Nhl
Calgary
Flames
Jarome Iginla
Chris Drury
Roman Turek
Nhl Prospects
Trade Deadline
Nhl Entry Draft
Powered By Updated!