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Wednesday, December 1, 1999
Canes were able
RALEIGH, N.C. -- 'Canes captain Ron Francis just returned after a two-game absence due to vertigo.
Vertigo, of course, is a disorientation at heights.
Which is something the Flames need never worry about. They're more accustomed to depths.
Before a crowd (using the word loosely) that could've crammed into a jumbo-sized sandbox -- announced, rather generously, at 7,903 -- Calgary gassed a 3-1 lead distressingly late in the second period, eventually beaten 4-3 by Carolina to fall to 0-2 on this six-game road trip.
Jeff O'Neill's second of the night and eighth of the season, with former Flame Gary Roberts providing a handy screen on Fred Brathwaite at 13:42 of the third, was the killing shot.
Carolina owner Peter Karmanos, on hand for the pre-game tribute to the late Steve Chiasson, couldn't have been overwhelmed by the turnout. But he had to be pleased with his club's third-period surge.
The 'Canes tied matters at 6:35 of the third on a powerplay -- Andrei Nazarov serving a minor for closing his hand on the puck -- when defenceman Sean Hill blew a point shot past Brathwaite, making his seventh consecutive start in net.
An assist for Paul Coffey on the goal tied him with former teammate Mario Lemieux for eighth on the all-time scoring list.
Things were going along swimmingly for the visitors as the second period wound down but, true to form, these Flames can't seem to do anything the easy way.
Ahead 3-1 with 15 seconds left, Brathwaite and Derek Morris couldn't decide who wanted to field a slow pass/shot from Carolina defenceman Sean Hill, the puck squirting free. Charging the net, Roberts got a piece of the puck and Brathwaite's glove as the goalie attempted to smother the puck. It slid right to Andrei Kovalenko and 'The Tank' had nothing but net staring at him.
An atrocious gaffe.
And, painfully, only 10.2 seconds remained.
"I actually covered the puck but the guy who was coming through ... I guess it was Roberts ... kicked it out from under my glove," groaned Brathwaite. "It's just such a BS play. One, it's lucky that he gets it out from underneath my glove and, two, why does it have to end up right on the guy's stick.
"Obviously that's the goal that changed the momentum ."
It left Calgary coach Brian Sutter slightly exasperated.
"I get tired of saying this but we did enough good things to deserve better," submitted Sutter. "That second goal of theirs, what can you say? The guy gets it loose from Freddie ... and we take a bad penalty on their third one.
"If you look, the difference in the game is that they scored one powerplay goal in the third, we mess up a powerplay and they score right after it for the winner."
The Flames had constructed their two-goal lead on diligent plays by a couple of newcomers.
Andreas Johansson tipped a Phil Housley point shot, established Calgary's second lead at 11:22. Actually, it was a double deflection, nicking first Johansson's stick, and then that of Carolina defenceman Nolan Pratt.
To go up a deuce, Martin St. Louis, up from Saint John, put in a tremendously hard-working shift, as he was being knocked down, eventually slapping a short pass to Cory Stillman, maybe 10 ft. from Irbe.
Stillman caught the far side, just inside the post.
Emotions, meantime, ran high during the pre-game ceremony in which Susan Chiasson dropped the puck.
"It's exciting to be back, exciting to be a part of the NHL family again," said Chiasson, whose husband, a former Flame, died in a single-car accident May 3 -- the morning after the Hurricanes were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. "It's nice to come back and have a little bit of closure and put things in perspective. Lots of people needed to know we're OK."
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