Flames Dislodge Net and Canadiens’ Hopes in Game 5

There were 20,062 hockey fans and then some, holding their breath and staring at Referee Kerry Fraser in the final seconds of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final series Tuesday night at the Saddledome. They were waiting to see what he was going to do about the net that was sliding around the ice behind Calgary goalie Mike Vernon.

It was Fraser, remember, who made the boarding call against the Flames that gave the Montreal Canadiens the power play at the end of the second overtime in Game 3, and the Canadiens cashed in. Fraser is not shy about making a big call.

And this one was big.

If Fraser ruled that Calgary’s Colin Patterson had deliberately knocked the goal off its magnetic moorings while the Canadiens were so desperately attacking late in the game, it would have meant a penalty shot.

It could have meant the game. Which certainly could end up meaning the Stanley Cup.

But Fraser made no call.

He agreed with the Flames that Patterson had some help falling into the post with 8 seconds left on the clock.

So the puck was dropped in the faceoff circle to the left of Vernon, and the Canadiens continued their frantic attack. With no luck.

Even with goalie Patrick Roy on the bench and six Canadiens trying to get a shot, the Canadiens came up short.

The Flames had managed to preserve their 3-2 victory to take a three-games-to-two lead in the series.

Montreal’s Larry Robinson, by nature an even-tempered man, let off a full head of steam when he was asked about the non-call after the game.

“If we complain about the referees, can we get a call?” Robinson asked. “All we hear about is poor Calgary getting hooked. Poor Calgary getting interfered with. Poor Calgary. Because we’re the Montreal Canadiens, we don’t get a break? Because somebody might complain to the league?

“You see a white shirt (Patterson) go flying through the crease with no red shirt near him, and knocks the net off the magnets, and no penalty is called? They’ve been doing it all through the series.”

Montreal’s Russ Courtnall added: “Obviously, he did it on purpose. They’ve been doing it all along.”

Patterson, of course, contended that it wasn’t intentional.

“I had to come back hard to get (Claude) Lemieux to lift his stick, and the momentum carried me into the net.”

Courtnall did fire toward the Calgary net after taking a pass from Bobby Smith out of the faceoff that resulted from the dislodged net. But the shot flew over the net and into the stands.

There was a final faceoff, then, just outside the Flames’ blue line. But the Canadiens couldn’t come up with the tying goal in the final three seconds.

So the Flames had managed to make the three goals they had scored in the first period stand up all the way.

The game winner turned out to be the goal that Al MacInnis had blown past Roy with just 29 seconds to play in the first period. MacInnis teed it up, wound up and fired one of his famous super slap shots through the slot to give the Flames a 3-1 lead during a power play.

Mike Keane’s goal at 14:17 of the second period put the Canadiens within a goal. Bobby Smith set it up by carrying the puck up the right side and starting to wrap around behind the goal. As soon as Vernon started to react to the wrap-around move, Smith dropped the puck off at the right corner, where Keane poked it in.

But Vernon shut them down after that, as the Flames went to work protecting their lead.

“You don’t sit on a lead, you protect it,” Calgary Coach Terry Crisp said. “We went through a period earlier when we were sitting on it.” Then they got protective.

Montreal had scored its only goal of the first period on a power play, too, when Smith picked up a puck right in front of the net and flipped it into the open, left side of the net while Vernon was busy on the right side.

When Smith scored at 13:24, with Jim Peplinski in the penalty box for holding, the Flames had already scored two goals.

Truly, the Flames did get some good bounces early.

Joel Otto had given the Flames a goal just 28 seconds into the game when a rebound of his shot, stopped by Roy, bounced off his elbow, over Roy and into the goal. Otto was given the first shot of that assault when Rick Green fanned on a pass and left the puck lying in front of Roy.

By the way, Montreal Coach Pat Burns pointed out that Otto had “both skates in the crease.”

Joey Mullen made it 2-0 at 8:15 when he lifted a loose puck out of the crease and past Roy while Canadien defenseman Eric Desjardins was busy trying to clear Otto out of the crease.

Burns said: “I think we played our best game of the series. They had the breaks early and we didn’t. . . .

“This was definitely a game that we had to win, there’s no doubt about that. We have our backs against the wall now.”

Home ice has been no guarantee of victory in this series. There certainly is no guarantee that Montreal will win on Thursday night to force a seventh game just because the game will be played in the Forum.

Stanley Cup Notes

Calgary defenseman Al MacInnis, who broke Bobby Orr’s 14-game consecutive point streak record for defensemen when he extended his scoring streak to 15 games with a goal and an assist Sunday night in Montreal, had a goal to extend his streak to 16 games Tuesday night. He now has seven goals and 22 assists for 29 points and will, no doubt, be the leading scorer in this playoff season. If so, he will be the first defensemen ever to lead the playoffs in scoring . . . Montreal Coach Pat Burns suffered a groin injury during practice Monday when he stepped on a puck .