SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Hockey
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
COLUMNS
NHL
The Teams
Full Schedule
Monthly Schedule
Standings
Statistics
Rosters
Injury list
Movement
Trades
Hits Gallery
INTERACTIVE
JUNIOR
MORE HOCKEY
ALSO ON SLAM!
Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Latecomers!
But it's nothing to be proud of -- "First ever Thrashers home win."
Calgary stumbled and bumbled its way through two periods of a 2-1 loss last night before relentlessly storming the Atlanta net in the final period.
But it was too little, too late, as for the second game in a row a hot goaltender proved enough to turn away a determined Flames team.
Yet again, this was a game the Flames should have won.
But lost. Again.
And now they've assured themselves the dubious distinction of being the first ever losers in Atlanta, the Flames one-time home until their relocation to Calgary in 1980.
The script last night was little different than the others on this six-game road trip, on which the team now sports a 1-3 record.
Five Calgary penalties in the first period gave Atlanta all the momentum they needed before goalie Damian Rhodes held off the desperate Flames rally in the final period.
Clarke Wilm scored a powerplay goal for the Flames but Andrew Brunette's rebound goal in the second period along with the Thrashers Nelson Emerson's first-period powerplay goal was enough for the home win.
"The only way to look at this is as a learning experience," said winger Cory Stillman.
"The first four games of this trip were incredibly important. In St. Louis, we didn't play well. We beat Florida and then played hard games in Tampa and Atlanta. But right now, we are taking some of our players out of the games with bad penalties early in the game.
"We have some guys sitting on the bench for half a first period while we kill penalties.
"It's costing us games.
"We didn't take this team lightly. We knew they are a hard-working team and that's what we have to try and do.
"We had chances that we have to score on."
But as good as Rhodes was, he was also very lucky. With six seconds left, Stillman saw nothing but net on a set play off the faceoff in the Thrashers zone.
But the puck rolled on bad ice, his potential game-tying shot fluttered harmlessly wide.
Ten seconds earlier, Jarome Iginla barrels in on net, his close-in shot somehow bouncing harmlessly away.To listen to head coach Brian Sutter, it's bad luck that is plaguing these Flames.
At some point, doesn't bad luck become simply a bad team?
"It's not like we are not getting scoring chances or doing a good job defensively -- we are doing all those things," said Sutter.
"The puck is not going in the net for some reason. I'm not going to put any more pressure on Iggy or Stillman. We did lose the hockey game but the last two hockey games we did everything we had to do to win.
"Every night, we are getting better. We're not getting worse. This was probably the best game we played of the trip."
That may be true. But it's disturbing when a team finds a way to lose games it must win.
"When you aren't playing well, things don't go right for you," said Val Bure. "You can't just wait for the third period to turn it up. It doesn't work like that. We have to go hard from the start.
"We're not doing that. There is frustration -- things aren't going for us when the team needs us to score. I want to say it's a long season, but it's really not. There is no tomorrow. We have to win every game to get into the playoffs. We have to fight for that playoff spot from the beginning."
And a few months from now, these losses in Atlanta and Tampa may prove the difference between playing in the postseason or watching from the sidelines for the fourth straight year.
 Bert's back on blades Blue Jays boot game Bombers drop Peterson Felicien rebuilds race | Visit our Polls Archive |