The Flicker Who Lights the Flames : Vernon Is Red Hot, Flicking Away Goals and Earning Respect

Among the National Hockey League’s elite goaltenders, Mike Vernon of the Calgary Flames is probably the most maligned and least appreciated.

And Glenn Hall doesn’t get it.

“He’s the best in the league,” said the Hall of Fame goaltender, who has tutored the Flames’ goalies for the last six seasons.

Judging by Vernon’s numbers, Hall may be right.

The 26-year-old Calgary native is the only goaltender in the league who has won at least 30 games in each of the last three seasons, winning 106 in all. This season, he was better than ever, with a 37-6-5 record in the regular season and leading the league in victories.

Vernon also ranked second in the NHL with a goals-against average of 2.65 and fourth with a save percentage of .897.

He has been especially effective against the Kings, winning his last 11 starts, including all nine this season. If he makes it 12 tonight at the Forum, the Flames will complete a sweep of the best-of-seven Smythe Division final.

In the past, Calgary has flamed out in the playoffs, failing to reach the conference final each of the last two seasons after reaching the Stanley Cup final in 1986, when it lost to the Montreal Canadiens.

And much of the blame for that has been placed on Vernon.

He can’t win the big ones.

At least, that’s what has been whispered around town.

Around Calgary, that is.

It reached the point last fall--in the wake of the Flames’ collapse last season against the hated Edmonton Oilers, who bounced them from the playoffs in a four-game sweep, and Vernon’s 3-2-2 start this season--that the Flames were rumored to be in the market for a new goaltender.

Management assured him that wasn’t the case, though, and a more relaxed Vernon has enjoyed his most successful season.

Although he failed to register a shutout in the regular season, 12 times he limited the opposition to a single goal.

Then, in a tense Smythe Division semifinal series against the Vancouver Canucks that wasn’t decided until Joel Otto scored with 39 seconds left in overtime to give the Flames a 4-3 victory in Game 7, Vernon twice shut out the Canucks.

And, in the overtime period that determined the series’ outcome, he made 11 saves, including one on a shot by Petri Skriko that Coach Terry Crisp found difficult to believe.

“When I saw Skriko shoot the puck all I could think of was, ‘Boys, it’s over,’ ” Crisp said later.

It wasn’t, of course.

Vernon kicked out his left skate, sending Skriko’s shot wide of the net. He later stopped Stan Smyl on a breakaway and gloved a 35-foot slap shot by Tony Tanti.

Afterward, teammate Hakan Loob announced to a group of advancing reporters: “Save your breath. I know the question. Mike Vernon can’t win in the playoffs, right? He chokes, right?

“OK, so who saved our . . . in overtime? Vernie. He gave us the chance to win. Without him, we’re finished. Done. That reputation--one he never deserved--rub it out now.”

Against the Kings, who led the NHL in scoring during the regular season, Vernon has allowed eight goals in three games.

Vernon, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 155 pounds, said he doesn’t understand the rap against him. His comments, though, indicate that he does, indeed, have a handle on it.

“In the last 10 years, only three goalies have won the Cup,” he said. “Sure, I have a great team in front of me, but so did (Grant) Fuhr and (Patrick) Roy and Billy Smith (of the Oilers, Canadiens and formerly of the New York Islanders, respectively). . . .

“My record in the last few years is not too shabby. But when you don’t win Stanley Cups and you’re expected to, the criticism follows. Even though this is a team game, it comes down to goaltending.”

And in Vernon, who was a rookie when the Flames reached the final in 1986, the Flames believe they have a goaltender who can take them to the top, even if those outside the organization might believe otherwise.

“There was a lot of speculation (last fall) that we needed a different goaltender if we were going to win the Stanley Cup,” said Cliff Fletcher, the Flames’ general manager. “And that was followed by rumors that the Flames were trying to make a trade.”

It wasn’t so, he said.

“At worst, he’s the third- or fourth-best goaltender in the league, or fifth-best goaltender in the league,” Fletcher said. “To give up what it would cost to get a goaltender who theoretically might be a little bit better, it didn’t make any sense at all.”

Crisp said that those who knock Vernon don’t understand the sport.

“Who criticized him?” he said. “The coaches didn’t criticize him. His teammates didn’t criticize him. The media criticized him. To me, that’s not criticism. That’s just people talking.

“We appreciate Mike Vernon.”

Hall, an 11-time All-Star who once played in a goalie-record 502 consecutive games for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, said it’s a common misconception that any goaltender would win consistently behind the high-scoring but stingy Flames, who gave up fewer goals in the regular season than all but the more defense-oriented Canadiens.

“It’s tough for a goaltender to be recognized as playing well when he’s looking at only 18 shots (in a game),” Hall said. “Not too many people look at the quality of the shots. They look at the number.”

The Flames, Hall said, give up a large number of quality chances. Moreover, he said, they sometimes dominate long stretches of games to the point where the goaltender might not face a shot for as long as 10 minutes, making it all the more difficult to maintain concentration.

“It’s not particularly easy to play for Calgary,” Hall said.

That’s especially true, it seems, for Vernon, who grew up in the city and twice, as a member of the Calgary Wranglers, was the most valuable player in the junior-level Western Hockey League.

Vernon knows everybody in town, so the theory goes, and jealousies have developed over the years.

Not everybody loves him.

Some would like to see him fall on his open, bearded face.

“You do get some outside pressures,” Vernon said. “But you have to learn to go about your business and be a little selfish, in a way.”

He understands what the Flames mean to the people of Calgary.

“We’re basically the only entertainment in the city and people live and die this game,” he said. “And when you lose four straight to Edmonton, they want to know why. Sometimes, you just don’t have the answer.”

When it was widely speculated last fall that Vernon might be the answer, it affected his play.

Crisp, though, said that Vernon’s poor start was a result of the Flames’ poor start, not vice versa.

Still, the trade rumors persisted. Vernon was said to be headed to the New York Rangers for John Vanbiesbrouck, or to the Buffalo Sabres for Tom Barrasso.

At one point, Crisp said of Vernon and his backup, Rick Wamsley: “We’d like to have them come up and play to the level of the goaltending we’ve been facing. I’m looking for when we have a (Kelly) Hrudey or a (Ron) Hextall or a (Ken) Wregget in our net.”

Then, catching himself, Crisp said: “Scratch that. What I mean is that we’d like to have a performance like the ones they’ve put on against us.”

Finally, in an effort to ease his mind, Fletcher and Crisp called Vernon in for a meeting in which they assured him that they had no plans to unload him.

“Of course he was bothered,” Crisp said. “He’s human. Nobody wants to be criticized. Nobody wants to be maligned. Nobody wants cheap shots taken at them. Mike’s no different.

“We called him in and said, ‘Hey, Mike, you’re going to hear it in every city we go to: You’re on the trading block. We’re going to trade you. It’s bull . . . . It’s a crock. Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to happen.’ ”

Said Fletcher: “We felt that by reassuring him that we were happy with him and that we weren’t looking to replace him, it would lift a weight off his shoulders.”

Vernon appreciated the gesture.

“Everybody needs a pat on the back once in a while,” he said. “After that, I basically forgot about all that outside stuff and just tried to do my job.”

Few, if any, did it better.

* SLIVER OF HOPE

The Kings are going to need a miracle finish to overcome Calgary’s 3-0 lead. Tracy Dodds’ story, Page 14.