Flames Reach High Point, Burning for 2 More Wins

The Calgary Flames are as close as they have ever been to winning a Stanley Cup. Two games down and three more chances to win two more.

With a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Sunday night before 17,907 wild hockey fans at the Forum, the Flames evened the Stanley Cup final series at two games apiece and established a high-water mark in franchise history.

The only other time the Flames made it to the final series, they won the first game and Montreal swept the next four. Not this time. The Flames are coming back after a game that got away from them on Friday night and into Saturday, a crushing double-overtime loss that gave the Canadiens the edge.

The Flames were, to a man, just plain angry about that loss. Angry about the call that gave the Canadiens a power play late in the second overtime, sure. But more angry with themselves for letting the game get away.

In the game that got away, Calgary goalie Mike Vernon gave up the tying goal to Mats Naslund with 41 seconds left in regulation. In the game he held onto Sunday night, Vernon made a memorable glove save on a shot by Naslund that would have tied the score, 2-2, and perhaps brought on another overtime.

“I knew the game was ours when Vernon stopped Naslund,” Calgary Coach Terry Crisp was saying as he fought to keep his balance in the crushing mass of humanity outside the tiny dressing room on the lowest level of the old Forum. “That was a big, big save. God love a duck, that was a big one.”

Vernon, the Flames’ often-maligned goalie, made that save less than a minute after Montreal’s Russ Courtnall scored to ruin was was looking to be a solid 2-0 shutout, putting the Canadiens within a goal at 10:59 of the third period.

“I think after Mats saw Courtnall’s goal, he wanted to do the same thing,” Vernon said. “He wanted to come in and go from his backhand to his forehand to get me to butterfly. But he didn’t have the speed Courtnall had. Courtnall had a little more speed and had me at his mercy.”

Courtnall took a pass from Mike McPhee and accelerated between Joel Otto and Al MacInnis to get a clear one-on-one shot at Vernon.

Vernon held the Canadiens at bay during the final minutes when the fans screamed for more and the Canadiens tried mightily to oblige.

After he made the stop on Naslund, a high-sticking call on Jamie Macoun so enraged Calgary teammate Ric Nattress that he argued himself into a 10-minute game misconduct with 7 minutes 13 seconds remaining.

Crisp knew there was a TV commercial break coming up and picked that time to call himself a nice, long timeout.

“The Canadiens were on a roll, the fans were on a roll, the whole building was rocking and we’re on the road,” Crisp said. “I thought we needed to take a timeout and settle down, try to take the crowd out of it.”

Crisp was cool and calm during the timeout, doing no yelling, no threatening. Just calling for order. He sent a couple of his players back onto the ice with a friendly pat on the helmet.

All they had to do was keep their heads about them and protect the one-goal lead. Something they had not done in Game 3.

But at 18:22, MacInnis gave Calgary an insurance goal on a hard slap shot that zipped past Montreal goalie Patrick Roy.

Soon after, with Roy on the bench, Joey Mullen missed an empty net chance, just as he had in the final minute of Game 3. Not a good sign.

And at 18:33 the infamous Claude Lemieux, the French-Canadian who was at the center of controversy when Montreal Coach Pat Burns benched him for Games 2 and 3, lifted the puck into the net to again make it a one-goal game, 3-2.

Incredibly, on his way off the ice after his goal, he slashed at Doug Gilmour and earned himself a two-minute penalty.

Exactly the kind of move that got him the benching from Burns.

So when the puck was dropped at center ice, the teams were skating five-on-five even with Roy out of the net.

Only 16 seconds later, Mullen scored into the empty net with 11 seconds left.

“I got a real bad feeling when Mullen hit the post again,” Crisp said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how he finally hit that open net at the end. I think he got a good move on it and a good deke.”

It is Crisp’s way to be light and witty. That act in no way indicated that he thinks the series is over.

In fact, he was agreeing with everyone around him that there is no such thing as home ice advantage in this series, not with both teams going 1-1 in both cities.

The Flames were, however, acknowledging that Game 4 was critical. And that the Flames are back in good shape with two of the last three games in Calgary.

“Every game we win from here on in is the biggest in the history of our franchise,” Colin Patterson said. “We’ve never been this far before. In ‘86, we only won one game.”

With that in mind, the Flames came out strong.

Calgary took a 2-0 lead in the second period, getting a breakaway goal from Gilmour just seconds after he was freed from the penalty box for holding. Gilmour scored at 11:56 of the second period, stealing a pass at center ice and skating at Roy to flip the puck into the left side of the net.

Mullen got the second goal for the Flames, taking advantage of a power play at the end of the second period--something the Flames were not able to do in the first period.

With Montreal defenseman Larry Robinson off the ice for cross-checking, Otto followed up a shot by MacInnis and beat Roy on the open left side of the net with 1 minute 17 seconds left in the period.

When the Flames had a two-man advantage for the last 1:11 of the first period (with Guy Carbonneau off for hooking at 18:03 and Bob Gainey off for slashing at 18:19), they were too careful, too hesitant to risk a shot.

“I don’t know why,” Crisp said. “We were all yelling, ‘Shoot!’ I could hear the eight million people watching their TV sets back in Calgary yelling, ‘Shoot!’ (Asst. Coach) Dougie Risebrough was yelling, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’ (Asst. coach) Tom Watt up in the box was yelling, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’

“The Canadiens know that MacInnis and Ramage can shoot. Maybe they weren’t giving them the shot.”

Montreal Coach Pat Burns thought that it was his team’s defense that shut down the Flames at the end of the first period.

“It’s been a power-play series,” Burns said. “We didn’t give MacInnis the shot when it was five on three. But then we couldn’t kill off a penalty five on four (Mullen’s second-period goal) and we gave him the shot.”

Stanley Cup Notes

The Kings and the New York Islanders are in the process of completing the trade that sent goalie Kelly Hrudey from the Islanders to the Kings for Mark Fitzpatrick, Wayne McBean and a player to be named later. The time has come. Islander General Manager Bill Torrey has received the list of protected players from the Kings and has reportedly chosen defenseman Doug Crossman--who was not protected. The completion of the deal has not been announced because Kings General Manager Rogie Vachon might want to make another deal.

In the 50 years since Stanley Cup finals have been best-of-seven series, winning Game 3 after splitting the first two games has meant the Cup for the winner of Game 3 in 27 of 30 cases. That’s 90% of the time.

Mark Hunter, who missed the open net with four minutes to play in the second overtime Friday night and who then drew the boarding penalty that gave the Canadiens the power play on which they scored, was playing for the first time in a month after suffering a broken wrist. Hunter played again Sunday night.

Director of officiating for the NHL, John McCauley, said that there will be no action taken against the Flames for the way they followed Kerry Fraser off the ice Friday night with their shouts of protest, or for the red cooler that was thrown on the ice from the Flames’ bench. . . . According to The Toronto Star, the Soviet Hockey Federation has released Soviet players to play in the National Hockey League pending the players’ release from the Soviet Red Army. The defection of Alexander Mogilny apparently has not adversely affected relations between the leagues. That might explain the remarks made by NHL President John Ziegler on Saturday that all “skilled and dedicated” players are welcome in the NHL. . . . Scouts are predicting that the June 17 draft will be one of the weakest in years.