Flames Find Consolation Prize

Rick Charlton

April 11th, 2002

Revenge is best served cold.

The last time Roman Turek was in Edmonton he was laughed out of Skyreach Centre, victim of three early goals and a quick hook in favour of backup Mike Vernon.

But Turek was the story last night, bringing his game face to Edmonton and stopping 36 Oiler shots in a 2-0 Calgary victory.

The win abruptly and ignomiously put a halt to Edmonton's drive to the post-season, much to the glee of Flames fans who can think of no better team to play spoiler against.

The shutout was the fifth of the year for Turek, who opened the campaign with a memorable 1-0 shutout of the Oilers in game one.

With the Flames also on the outside of the post-season picture, it is the first time since the Oilers joined the NHL in 1979 that both Alberta teams are out of the Stanley Cup derby.

For Flames fans the wail of the final siren on this one will be a moment they may savour as they did the Doug Risebrough shredding of Marty McSorley's sweater oh so long ago.

On the Oilers side of the equation, the deadening of their season was probably as abrupt as Steve Smith scoring on Grant Fuhr in 1986.

The win brought the Flames to 32-34-12-3 on the season for 79 points and 11th place in the Western Conference. The Oilers remain in ninth and have no chance now of catching Vancouver for the eighth and final playoff spot. Edmonton had been unbeaten in its previous nine at home.

It was the first win in 10 road games for the Flames.

After a tight checking first period the Oil poured it on in the second but couldn't dent the armour of Turek, who won his 30th game of the season and was particularly sharp in the second and third periods with 15 and 12 saves per stanza.

Chris Clark finally opened scoring seven seconds into Calgary's third power play of the night, picking up a Derek Morris rebound and rocketing a bullet over Tommy Salo's right pad at 14:51 of the second period.

Jarome Iginla iced the contest with his 52nd of the year into an empty net at 19:38 of the third. The goal gives Iginla a league leading 96 points on the season with one game left to play, tomorrow night in Calgary against Vancouver.

Turek was brilliant from the second period on, stopping Ethan Moreau on two point blank opportunites, Mike York and Josh Green, all from in close.

And those were only the highlights. It was a controlled, dominating performance reminiscent of the early season Turek whom the Flames rode to a quick start to this season.

Flames were one for three on the powerplay while the Oil were zero for three against the 28th ranked penalty kill in the NHL.

It was an SRO Skyreach with 16,839 in attendance, most, but not all, who left disappointed.

 

Scoreboard
	Calgary Flames	2
	Edmonton Oilers	0

Box Score

FLAMES LINES

OUR THREE STARS

1 Roman Turek - They weren't mocking his name at Skyreach last night, brilliant with 36 saves. 

2 Jarome Iginla - Scored the clincher in the final seconds but the 10 minutes of ice time he logged in the second might have been more important, forcing the Oilers off their game plan. 

3 Toni Lydman - matched with Robyn Regehr against the Mike Comrie line of Edmonton, Lydman was terrific at both ends all night, including some strong physical play.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Any number of highlight reel stops by Roman Turek might do, including two within seconds off the stick of Ethan Moreau. But Turek's brilliant third period stop of Mike York, who deflected a Todd Marchant pass on the edge of the goal crease, was an unqualified game saver.

HIT OF THE GAME

Jamie Wright was speeding down the right wing with only a few inches between himself and a clean breakaway on Tommy Salo when Steve Staios rubbed him out with a thundering and timely hit late in the third period.

NOTES & STATS

Micki Dupont made his NHL debut as a left winger while Steve Montador, another AHL defenceman, played left wing as well . . . . . . Iginla and Conroy logged tremendous ice time, forcing Edmonton coach Craig McTavish to finally concede and play the Comrie line against Iginla rather than a checking line. Iginla played 10:02 in the second period, forcing McTavish's hand. Iginla finished with 25:03 in ice time. Don't forget Conroy's 24:02. Janne Niinimaa logged 27:12 for Edmonton. . . . . . We had already established in an early Calgarypuck.com story that Skyreach Centre has the toughest hit count in the NHL and this night was no exception, only 17-16 favouring the Flames. Jason Smith led the Oil with five hits and Bob Boughner had three for Calgary. . . . . . . Conroy was 60% in the faceoff circle to lead the Flames, including a huge win in the last 44 seconds. But the Flames were only 46% on the night. Comrie was 60% for the Oil. . . . . . .Regehr and Morris had four blocked shots for Calgary, which had 14 on the night. Jason Smith had four of Edmonton's 14 blocked shots.