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 Calgary Flames goalie Curtis McElhinney made just enough stops last night to help his squad come back in a 4-3 shootout win over the host Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. (QMI Agency) |
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Curtis McElhinney's first NHL shootout was dramatic.
So was the comeback it capped off.
The Calgary Flames backup goaltender came through with just enough stops to emerge the winner in a wild 4-3 shootout victory last night over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
Facing a dangerous Blue Jackets lineup in the showdown, you'd think McElhinney would be a little nervous, but he said his head was clear.
"I do a lot of them in practice -- it's fun," McElhinney said after just his third victory in the league. "It's a little bit different when you're doing it on chewed-up ice.
"They made some nice moves, and it was nice to get three goals (of support)."
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Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash scored for the Jackets, while Nigel Dawes and Olli Jokinen responding for the Flames before teammate Jamie Lundmark ended it in the shootout. Just before Lundmark's winner, McElhinney made the save on Anton Stralman, who ran the goalie over after the stop.
But it was just the icing on the cake after a third-period comeback put the Flames back on even ground and forced extra time.
Up 1-0 on Jokinen's fifth of the season early in the second period, the Flames fell into a familiar pattern of relenting.
That shootout collision with Stralman was nothing compared to what McElhinney faced when the team started its slide.
After Rick Nash took advantage of a powerplay to tie things up, and Marc Methot took advantage of some weak defence to give the Jackets the lead 63 seconds later, Jared Boll added another blow late in the period.
First, it was physical, as the Jackets goon, Boll, slammed into McElhinney behind the net.
But the physical impact wasn't nearly as painful as the goal he scored seconds after he finished serving two minutes for interference.
With just 28 ticks on the clock before the second intermission, Boll tucked a wristshot from an awkward angle into the far corner to give the Blue Jackets a critical two-goal cushion and completely wrestle momentum away from the Flames.
Goals from Dustin Boyd and Dawes squared things up in the third, as the Flames got back to business.
"They put on a pretty good onslaught there. They got a couple of goals I thought I would have liked to have had back, but hey, it worked out in the end," McElhinney said.
"We came out flying in the third period."
Jokinen said the message during the final intermission hit home for the club.
"We were confident. The coaching staff was confident if we got back to the way we played in the first period, we were going to win the game," Jokinen said following a goal and assist performance that ranks as one of his best efforts of the season. "That was the message after the second period.
"We came back hard in the third. It was a good comeback win."
While McElhinney felt he might have let his teammates down a little with some stoppable goals, the rest of the team was just as guilty for the lapse in the second period.
They wanted to make up for it.
"He works hard. He's a good teammate. He's doing extra work every day. We want to play hard for him," Jokinen said. "We felt bad. We kind of let him down in that second period."
They made up for it.
Lundmark's low-blocker shot past Jackets goalie Steve Mason in the shootout provided a little redemption of its own after the winger was replaced on the top line by Boyd earlier in the game.
"It felt great," Lundmark said. "It was a big comeback for us. Just to finish it off, it was great."
STEVE.MACFARLANE@SUNMEDIA.CA