Turek and Drury Steal Show

Flames Ride Red Hot Goaltending to Road Win

October 19th, 2002
D'Arcy McGrath

AP Photo
Flames Win: Chris Drury scored his first in Flame colours.

Successful teams need solid goaltending. 

Game in, game out, solid goaltending.

And ... the odd stolen game if possible, two points in a contest that likely would and could have gone the other way had it not been for an imbalance in the nets.

An imbalance is exactly what occurred in Chicago on Saturday night when the Calgary Flames turned back the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 5-2.

The final score likely flattered the visitors as Hawk goalie Jocelyn Thibault struggled, allowing five goals on 25 shots, while his counterpart, Roman Turek, turned aside 33 of the 35 shots he saw from Chicago.

Despite two goals, and three points (including his first goal as a Flame) from newcomer Chris Drury, Roman Turek was the game story.

The Flames were out shot by a margin of 13-6 in the first period, but inexplicably escaped with a 2-0 lead on goals by Drury and Jarome Iginla, his 2nd of the campaign.

Iginla opened the scoring 11 minutes in when he converted a back hand past Thibault with assists going to Drury and Craig Conroy.

Later in the period, Drury notched his first of the season with an unassisted goal with just under four minutes to play in the frame.

The Flames recovered in the second period, gaining more of the play, and forging ahead to a 3-0 lead when Bob Boughner fired a long bounce shot past a startled Thibault. Boughner's goal was the eventual game winner, but not before the Hawks made it interesting.

Before the end of the second period they climbed to within one goal on the strength of markers by Steve Thomas and Steve Sullivan, setting up an interesting third period.

Or so they thought ...

With the Hawks poised to tie the game and enjoying a huge edge in play in the first five minutes, including a 6-1 edge in shots, Martin Gelinas salted things away with his 3rd as a member of the Flames.

Chris Drury added a second goal late to make the final score 5-2 Calgary, giving the Flames a victory in the opening night of a three game road trip, and pushing the clubs unbeaten streak to three games after a 0-2-0 start.

The Flames take their road show to Detroit for a contest on Monday night before concluding their road trip in Minnesota on Tuesday.

 

 

 

Scoreboard
Calgary Flames 5
Chicago Blackhawks 2

Box Score

FLAMES LINES

Gelinas Conroy Iginla
Savard Drury Kobasew
Niedermayer Yelle Clark
Begin Johansson Sloan
 
Lydman Regehr
Gauthier Boughner
Buzek Leopold

OUR THREE STARS

1 Roman Turek - saved the Flames bacon in the first period, greatly over shadowed Thibault at the other end. 

2 Chris Drury - Two goals, three points, a solid night for the newly acquired winger. 

3 Jarome Iginla - Nice to see Iginla over shadowed with a goal and an assist of his own.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Roman Turek stones two former Flames, Michael Nylander and Phil Housley, with back to back saves three minutes into the third period, setting up Gelinas to put the game away.

NOTES & STATS

Jordan Leopold saw his first NHL action on the night, hitting the ice for a total of 17:43 of action, and finished even. ... Chuck Kobasew picked up his first NHL assist on the final Chris Drury goal, stretching his point streak to three games. ... There were only four man advantage situations in the game, quite a feat in the new "call everything" NHL. ... The insertion of Leopold into the lineup seemed to create a more even balance of ice time for the defenceman with Toni Lydman dropping from over 27 minutes against Philly to just over 21 tonight. ... The Flames were edged in the face off circle by a count of 38-33.

 

  Calgarypuck.com
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