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Sunday, December 5, 1999
Devs burned
'Counterfeit' Flames beat New Jersey at its own game
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- OK, enough's enough. Fun's over. Set up an inquiry. Who are these guys, where are the real Calgary Flames and, for the love of heaven, what has been done with them?
It's like out-grossing Howard Stern. Out-talking Rush Limbaugh. Out-milque-toasting Mr. Rogers.
Imagine, being more patient, more opportunistic, more composed than the New Jersey Devils.
A mere 24 hours after the Devils had gored the overmatched, overpowered Senators 7-4, these counterfeit Flames masquerading as the Dallas Stars impaled them 4-2 before an astonished crowd at Continental Airlines Arena.
They were gritty. Smart. And they had Freddie. Fred Brathwaite consolidated his spot as the top dog in goal, producing 37 saves to stun the Devs.
The loss put an end to Jersey's 12-game (10-0-2) home unbeaten streak, with an exclamation point, and evened Calgary's record on this trip 2-2 with a pair still to play.
"We knew they hadn't lost at home since the first game of the season," said Brathwaite. "We knew they were going to come at us hard. They crash the net as hard as anybody in the league."
The Flames answered by throwing New Jersey's patience-filled game plan back in their face.
"We played the way they do and tonight, we did it pretty well," commented Brathwaite.
Making his ninth straight start, Brathwaite lost his shutout bid 3:33 into the third, a point shot from Scott Stevens deflecting off the stick of Flames defenceman Tommy Albelin, up in the air, and dipping behind him and into the net. Scott Niedermayer added a second Jersey goal in the dying seconds.
Leading the way in a number of areas was Cory Stillman, a guy who's been knocked for not being gritty enough on enough nights.
When Stillman was abruptly removed from the No. 1 line of Val Bure and Jeff Shantz in favour of newcomer Andreas Johansson the last week of November, he doubtless considered it a demotion; a punishment.
Instead, partnering with Jason Wiemer and Martin St. Louis has been his salvation.
Stillman opened scoring in the first, pushing his goal-scoring streak to five games, then stripped Lyle Odelein of the puck at centre and set up St. Louis' first of the season on a Gretzky-esque behind-the-back 2-on-1 pass for an astonishing 4-0 Calgary advantage midway in.
"It's a play I fiddle around with in practice but I was a little nervous using it in a game," said Stillman. "If it works, it looks good. When the guy puts it in the net, like Marty did, it looks even better."
Flames coach Brian Sutter raves about the two-way play of his St. Louis-Stillman-Wiemer unit, which is often deployed against the other team's top line.
"They work hard away from the puck, they finish their checks and they create their chances from that," said Sutter. "That's exactly what we want from them."
It's highly unlikely the Flames could have scripted a better first period. They held the Devils to seven shots, bottled them up coming through the neutral zone, managed to score twice themselves and had the fans jeering the home side as it exited the ice.
Stillman socred on Calgary's first shot of the game. With 24.4 ticks left on the scoreclock, Jarome Iginla bulling a 25-ft. slapshot off Brodeur's blocker/stick/pad and into the net to make it 2-0.
Andrei Nazarov's second-period marker made it 3-0.
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