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All
Aboard!
Bandwagon
Departs BC With Win
October
14th, 2002
D'Arcy
McGrath
Tape them ankles, pull the Flames
banner out of the trash, and get back on that bandwagon, the Flames have
won a hockey game.
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AP Photo |
| Take That: Flames
extract revenge for opening night. |
With the club sitting at 0-2-0,
and staring down the Vancouver Canucks - the author of their first
setback - many a Calgary fan appeared to have all but written their club
off a mere 1/41st of the way through the season.
They may take pause after Monday
night's come from behind 3-2 victory over the Canucks.
They did the trick using many of the
new game elements that had the city intriqued with the season around the
corner.
They had balanced scoring.
They had team speed.
They blocked shots/
They had an aggressive penalty kill.
A scoreless first period followed by
two quick Canuck goals looked to have the guys in white (I hate it when
third jerseys come into it), on the ropes.
The Canucks opened the scoring on a
powerplay stretching from the first period. Off the faceoff Vancouver
defender Ed Jovanovski slid a harmless shot from the point towards the
Calgary goal. The rebound bounced to Brendan Morrison who directed the
puck at the net. Roman Turek placed his stick on it, but the persistent
Morrison flipped it over the fallen goaltenders lumber for a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later the Canucks doubled
their lead using a strong forecheck to generate mayhem in the Calgary
zone. Daniel Sedin, showing his 20 lbs. of new found muscle, brought the
puck out of a scrum, circled the net and passed the puck to linemate
Trent Klatt. The puck slid past Klatt but onto the blade of defenceman
Brent Sopel who ripped home the Canucks' second of the night.
The Flames didn't give up.
Chance after un-rewarded chance finally
led to some Flames fortune when the Craig Conroy, Jarome Iginla, Martin
Gelinas line worked the boards well leading to a Craig Conroy bunt
past a startled Dan Cloutier.
Then, less than a minute later the
Flames were back again, this time with Micki Dupont doing the honours,
with his first NHL goal from the point.
From there the Flames took the game
away, pressing the Canucks into their own zone and dominating play on
the wall.
The Flames top line, down graded in
skill perhaps with Martin Gelinas taking the place of Chris Drury, won
the battle of the top lines hands down keeping Naslund, Bertuzzi and
Morrison hemmed in their own zone.
After killing of two key third period
penalties the Flames finally went ahead for good when Chuck Kobasew
scored his first career NHL goal.
Kobasew took a pass at the Canuck
blueline, used his frame to shield the puck from the Canuck defender
before flipping an off balance shot toward Cloutier. The puck took a
funny hop before landing in the net in a heap of players featuring Marc
Savard and Ed Jovanovski.
At press time the official scorer had
the puck entering the cage off of Jovanovski and not Savard, though that
might change.
The win moves the Flames to 1-2-0 on
the season, and two points behind the rival Canucks.
The Flames take on Boston on Thursday
night at the Saddledome.
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