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Flames
Draw First Blood In
Tampa
Early
Fluke Goals Paves Way to
Series Lead
May
25th, 2004
D'ARCY
MCGRATH
Fifteen
years ago tonight the
Calgary Flames flooded
the Forum ice in
Montreal to celebrate
their first and only
Stanley Cup
Championship.
Tonight
the Flames took to the
ice again, this time in
Tampa Bay, Florida, to
begin their seven game
series with the Tampa
Bay Lightning.
On
this night, in a
different era, a very
different Flames roster proved once again that
they will bend, but
often they won't break
in handing the Tampa
Lightning only their
third loss at home in
this post by a final
score of 4-1.
The
Flames showed a little
six day rust early with
the Lightning taking the
play to the Flames
despite not generating
many blue chip scoring
chances.
The
visitors weathered the
storm well, hitting the
scoresheet first on a
fluke goal credited to
Martin Gelinas. On the
play Andrew Ference took
the puck down the
blueline and then
flipped the puck at the
net. The puck hit a
defender then Gelinas
skate and then bounced
to goaltender Nikolai
Khabibulin who
inadvertently put it in
his own net.
The
play was sent upstairs
for review, but stood
when video tape showed
Gelinas didn't move his
skate in a kicking
motion towards the net.
The
Flames drew first blood
in another fashion later
in the period when the
Flames effectively
killed their first
penalty against the high
powered man advantage
crew of the Lightning,
by not permitting a
shot. In fact it was the
Flames, and specifically
Chris Clark who came the
closest short handed
when he missed wide on a
two on one.
The
Flames had a late
powerplay and showed the
very same ineffective
unit we've seen in these
playoffs.
The
Flames were hemmed in
early in the second
period and were lucky to
keep the Lightning to
the outside, avoiding a
deadlock on the
scoreboard.
Tampa
came up empty on their
second powerplay of the
night when Robyn Regehr
was sent off for
holding. Later, the game
changed on a dime when
Andrew Ference was
chased to the box for
hooking Martin St. Louis
on a good Bolt chance.
With
Ference cooling his
heels Jarome Iginla
dashed in on a
breakaway, got stoned by
the glove hand of
Khabibulin but had
presence of mind to
bring the puck back out
and tuck it in the empty
net.
Calgary
forward speed led to
their third goal, also
in the second period,
when Stephane Yelle got
in quickly and forced
Dan Boyle to cough up
the puck, then calmly
rounded the net and
fired it high on
Khabibulin.
That
left the stunned Tampa
crowd, spoiled to the
tune of a 7-2 record on
home ice this season, to
the concourse for beer
with the home side down
3-0 in game one of the
cup final.
Things
got a little more
interesting than coach
Sutter would have liked
in the third with Ville
Nieminen taking a silly
penalty and Martin St.
Louis converting on a
powerplay. The goal
may be changed to
Fredrik Modin as it
appeared he got a stick
on the puck as it
crossed the line.
"They
work so hard", Brad
Richards told CBC after
the game. "They're
always moving their
feet. They're
relentless".
The
relentless Flames take a
1-0 series lead setting
up another
"gravy" game
in game two as they had
both in the Detroit and
San Jose series. The
Flames will be looking
to duplicate their Shark
success and put a
strangle hold on the cup
final before returning
to Calgary.
"Obviously
this team has done this
before", said
captain Dave Andreychuk
after the game.
"They're not
looking for the split.
This is a must win for
us"
The
Flames are now one win
closer to the ultimate
goal of winning the
Stanley Cup, a feat accomplished
just 15 short seasons
ago.
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