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Monday, December 13, 1999
Weighting game
WIEMER'S WINNER LETS JOHANSSON OFF THE HOOK
CHICAGO -- Andreas Johansson couldn't find a deep enough hole to crawl into.
So Jason Wiemer dug him out.
Wiemer's goal, with less than two minutes remaining, erased a Blackhawks' game-tying goal just a couple of minutes earlier on a powerplay caused by Johansson -- giving the Flames a 2-1 win.
"I felt like the whole weight of the team was on my shoulders when they scored," said Johansson, who clipped the 'Hawks' J.P. Dumont with his stick as he tried to clear the puck from the Flames' zone.
When Steve Sullivan scored on the ensuing four-minute powerplay, Johansson could only watch as his team lost its 1-0 lead.
"Not only had I not been playing well, but then I took that penalty -- I felt like I lost the game for the team," he said.
"But that's why this is a team game -- when Jason scored I felt so relieved. I'm going to buy him whatever he wants tonight."
But as much as the win was due to Wiemer's late heroics, it was made possible by another strong game from goalie Fred Brathwaite.
The search for a starting goalie has gone on for a long time in Calgary.
Trevor Kidd, Rick Tabaracci, Ken Wregget, Grant Fuhr ... the quest of a bonafide No. 1 has gone far and wide.
But perhaps, the answer to that search is right under their noses in a guy who keeps emerging from his back-up role to lead this team's turnarounds.
Freddie, Freddie, Freddie ...
His performances have made him a fan-favourite and relegated Grant Fuhr, the latest anointed No. 1 goalie, to the bench.
But with a goals against average of 2.47 and a .500 record at 7-7-1, it is Brathwaite who is making a case he not only belongs in the league, but in the No. 1 role.
In starting 12 of the last 13 games he has led this Flames team to a 7-4-1 run that has allowed them to stop their fall out of the playoff race in the Western Conference.
"He's been unbelievable," said Wiemer of Brathwaite.
" If you go back and look at the games we've won, he's had to have been a star in 90 percent of them. He's not just making the routine saves, but the outstanding ones as well.
"Any success we are having right now, this whole team is aware that Freddie has a lot to do with that."
Val Bure's second period powerplay goal looked like it might be enough offence to beat the worst team in the Western Conference.
But with less than six minutes remaining in the game, Johansson took the high sticking minor and gave the 'Hawks new life.
They didn't waste it.
Less than a minute into the powerplay, the 'Hawks' Sullivan snapped a rebound of an Alexei Zhamnov shot past a helpless Brathwaite.
But no one was more relieved at the final buzzer than Andreas Johansson who shed his goat's horns thanks to Wiemer's late game winner.
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