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Friday, December 3, 1999
Enraged Flames
Freddie, Flames skunk Isles
UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Mother of mercy! Someone call in the SPCA!
What kind of barbarians could do such sadistic things to a poor old 'Cat'?
Left abandoned as an unwanted alley tom, Felix 'The Cat' Potvin got the Puss 'n Boots put to him, but good, by a suddenly-enraged group of Flames last night.
While Potvin was being bombarded, Calgary goalie Fred Brathwaite slammed the door on New York in a commanding 5-0 victory.
It was Brathwaite's second career shutout.
He was particularily sharp in the third period, kicking out 13 shots.
Potvin and the Islanders buckled under the weight of countless penalties, and the Flames put in their most energetic, complete performance of the season, picking up their first win of this road trip.
Their utter dominance was reflected in the lopsided shot total:
Flames 42, Isles 24.
After the fourth one whizzed past him, Potvin smashed his stick on the crossbar in anger. It symbolized his night.
"It's frustrating for sure," he murmured afterwards. "Any time you let in four goals in 10 minutes, you're not too happy. I don't care how they go in.
"We took a lot of penalties, too many penalties, and they kept putting pucks at the net. They made it uncomfortable for me."
And if the fans here (however many there are) have their way, Potvin won't be Luongo for the Island.
"If this was a prize fight," sighed one wag in the press-room, between the second and third periods, "they'd stop it."
Alas, the referees refused to step in, and the carnage continued unabated.
"If you play hard, whistle to whistle, good things generally happen," said Flames' coach Brian Sutter. "They took penalties, we didn't retaliate, and it paid off for us. It kind of makes up for the last one (a 4-3 loss at Carolina after gassing a 3-1 lead) and sets up a .500 road trip. We needed to win."
Calgary burned Potvin for four second-period goals, two via the powerplay, to put it out of reach by the midway mark. For all he was required to do through 35 minutes, Brathwaite could've taken up crocheting and mastered the complexities of pearl-knit.
When the Isles registered their first shot of the second, 8:47 in, the sparse gathering of 6,513 howled in sarcastic delight. Potvin, too, came in for a heaping helping of derision, especially since he has fallen out of favour locally with the arrival of rookie phenom Roberto Luongo.
Calgary drove to the net with the zeal of an enraged lynch mob, beat the Isles to nearly every loose puck lying around and generally had their way with the Isles.
Potvin was victimized for two goals in the first 2:54.
On the first, just as Calgary's third powerplay of the evening had expired, Islanders' jurassic defenceman, 6-ft. 9-in. Zdeno Chara, levelled Jason Wiemer along the boards behind his net, but was a bit tardy getting back to pick up Cory Stillman.
Val Bure, still on the right point, slipped a pass through to Stillman, past a befuddled Chara, and Stillman muscled the puck in on the long side.
The goal pushed Stillman's goal-scoring streak to four games.
"It was nice that when he had them down, we didn't let them up," said Stillman. "It didn't finish 5-2, or 5-3. For me, personally, it's nice to start getting on some kind of a roll."
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