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Thursday, October 7, 1999
Al's the one
Lanny. Vernon. Joey. Reggie Let 'Em In. Nieuwendyk. Roberts. Theo. And Al. Always Al.
In last night's home opener, the new star in town had to take a back seat to an old hero.
Al MacInnis muscled one of his trademark slapshots behind Grant Fuhr, assisted on a second goal and broke up a 2-on-1 in the third period as the St. Louis Blues sent the Flames tumbling to a 4-1 defeat.
For Fuhr, redemption will have to wait until Dec. 14 at the Kiel Center, at the earliest; and his first victory in the colours until at least Friday.
MacInnis, the '99 Norris Trophy winner, continues to go from strength to strength.
The Blues put the game out of reach with their second power-play goal of the evening, Chris Pronger's long range slapshot sailing in off Geoff Courtnall's stick and beyond Fuhr at 10:56 of the third period.
Pierre Turgeon slapped on some more cement with an empty-netter in the final minute.
It had all seemed so possible early in the second period when the Flames somehow scrounged their way in front, courtesy of -- no lie -- Tommy Albelin.
Either Phil Housley tightroped the blueline with precision or was a foot offside on the rush, dead-eye Albelin following him into the zone, freezing Blues' defenceman Marc Bergevin down, and then firing a shot just over top of Jamie MacLennan's right pad as he went down in the butterfly and a whisker inside the post.
That held up until 16:25, when MacInnis let loose with a two-banker, post-to-post, and in to tie the score.
Fuhr then was slapped with a minor for firing the puck over the glass, and MacInnis this time wristed a floating knuckler that was deflected by Scott Young and dipped a foot and a half en route to the net.
Cruelly, only 33 seconds remained in the period.
The Blues had seven shots within the first two and half minutes, mustered nine before Calgary could manage a response and wound up with an 11-5 advantage through 20 minutes.
It only took the opening-night crowd 17 minutes and change to begin jeering the impotent Flames powerplay.
Alas, the ancitipated goaltending match-up, the outgoing Fuhr vs. the incoming Roman Turek, never materialized, as Blues' coach Joel Quenneville decided to give MacLennan his first action of the regular-season and first of any kind in 10 days.
Turek hadn't won in his opening two starts as a Blue, true, but he'd only surrendered five goals during that span and in beating Fuhr it could've exorcised the ghost of the past and allowed the rangy Czech to get on with his season.
"We just wanted to get Jamie some work," was how Quenneville explained the decision.
Well, he didn't get enough.
Not nearly enough.
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