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Thursday, November 4, 1999
OT stunner!
They fall behind.
They suffer more breakdowns than Zelda Fitzgerald.
They struggle against the current, in constant danger of being enveloped by the waves. Usually, they're swept out to sea and drown.
But if they can somehow push it past the regulation 60 minutes ...
"We try to pretend the beginning of the game is the start of overtime," sighed defenceman Tommy Albelin. "Even that doesn't work.
"In first periods, we seem to wait to see what the other team is going to do. We don't initiate much. It's only when we're down a goal or two and it's getting desperate that we go out full throttle. I wish I could explain why."
Albelin capped an improbable, unlikely, impossible comeback last night, swatting a flying puck into the Nashville net at 4:56 of overtime, sending the Flames to a 5-4 win that left the Predators shaken, stunned and broken.
Calgary is now 4-0-2 in overtime, and remains 0-8 in regulation.
Improbable? The low-scoring Flames were down 2-0 seven minutes into the second period.
Unlikely? They trailed 3-1 entering the third period.
Impossible? They were 4-2 in arrears with a minute and a half remaining in regulation.
Yet somehow they got it done.
"A broken play, really," explained Albelin. "I think Hnat (Domenichelli) threw the puck at the net, it popped up in the air. There was a guy maybe a foot and a half away from me and the puck was dropping, so I took a hack at it. My golf swing. A driver.
"The fact that I hit it, much less that it went in the net, is something of a mystery."
Worthy of Agatha Christie.
Sharing the spotlight with Albelin was another defenceman, Phil Housley, magnificent in scoring the two goals -- within 39 seconds of each other -- to push the game into OT. His tying strike came with 37 seconds remaining and Grant Fuhr on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
Up by the side of the net -- where he'd been caught on Nashville's fourth goal, a 2-on-1 that appeared to have salted the game away at 14:23 -- Housley spun to corral a Val Bure pass and then showed unerring calm in waiting for Mike Dunham to drop and begin thrashing about like a hooked perch at the bottom of a skiff before roofing a shot.
"I was thinking if you're going to lose, might as well go down trying," said Housley.
An announced crowd of 13,794 alternately squirmed and snoozed their way through proceedings, until that unbelievable final minute and change. And, of course, OT.
"We've practised (overtime), we talked about it, we take pride in it," said coach Brian Sutter.
But it's best not to start relying on it, cautioned Albelin.
"Nashville's a good, hard-working team, but if we get down a goal or two late and expect to come back against Detroit, Dallas or Colorado, we're going to be losing some games," he reminded.
At 14:27 of the third, at the end of an extremely long shift, the Flames were caught on a 2-on-1, Randy Robitaille and Darren Turcotte playing give-and-get for a pretty fourth goal that looked to be all the Preds would need.
It negated a shorthanded Clarke Wilm snipe just 1:19 into the third.
Nashville's third goal at 11:18 of the second period was a characteristic bit of impromptu Calgary comedy.
Unable to corral a puck bouncing off the side boards, Cory Stillman A) failed to gain possession; and then B) whiffed on a clearing attempt as it slid towards Grant Fuhr.
Fuhr, down on all fours, couldn't smother, and Ronning happily stuffed the loose puck in behind him.
Two goals in 33 seconds early in the second period, just when it appeared the combatants could play until Boxing Day without threat of one, had the Predators primping.
The wily oldie, Ronning, hit for the first, batting a high pass down, swinging around Travis Brigley in front and firing a wrist shot back against the flow that handcuffed Fuhr.
At 6:46, Nashville was up a deuce, Greg Johnson whipping a pass out from behind the Flame net to right winger Tom Fitzgerald at the post.
Fitzgerald cashed the chance before Fuhr could move, Calgary defenceman Cale Hulse arrving oh, only a minute or so too late to do anything about it.
Th, but only 33 seconds after the Preds were finished celebrating, the Flames were having a group hug of their own, thanks to a nice bit of hand-eye co-ordination on the part of Jeff Shantz.
Reaching back, Shantz caught a foot-high passout from Jarome Iginla on the lower shaft of his stick, down near the blade, but still had enough pop to chip it up and behind Mike Dunham.
A catatonic first period ended, mercifully. Outside of Cory Stillman cracking a wicked wrist shot off a post, the Flames' offence was non-existent.
Not that the plucky Preds were generating tangibly more. Their best chances were left to scoreless Scott Walker. On the first, a Pavel Torgaev turnover in the offensive zone, set up an odd-man situation for penalty-killing Nashville.
If there's such a thing as a good penalty, Val Bure took it, hooking down Walker as he stormed to the net on the shorthanded Predator rush.
Walker, set up 10 feet out, in prime scoring postion, missed the next great opportunity, driving a shot high and over the crossbar with poor Fuhr staring down the gun barrel.
Outside of that ...
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