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Saturday, October 16, 1999
Nothing doin'
Not even Revenue Canada could do as comprehensive a job.
But about the only thing the Flames taxed last night was Brian Sutter's patience.
"No excuses. We left our defencemen high and dry and our goaltender high and dry," seethed Sutter, bristling after the 4-1 stinker that ended his club's overly modest two-game unbeaten streak.
"Outside of one line, we didn't have much. All four goals, almost identical. We gave up the puck on the boards. I guess we know an easy way to do things at home.
"I don't have the answers.
"You go ask the players."
OK, if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Spokesperson?
"They out-charactered us, if that's a (bleep)in' word," muttered captain Steve Smith, his nose bloodied and his lip swelling.
"Tomorrow we'd better check our egos at the door. We win a game, and we start thinking it's going to be easy? Huh! They were just hammering pucks at Grant. And he was making the saves early on. But eventually, he's just going to get worn down."
Sutter was so wired for sound he didn't even condemn L.A.'s controversial third goal, that by Donald Audette, that flung the outcome out of reach.
At 12:43, Audette, allowed a free run down the right side, wired a slapshot from the just outside the faceoff dot that rocketed over Fuhr's arm.
Did it go in? Or hit the post?
"It had to go through the net, the way the puck came back out on the left side," contended Audette. "I looked at Rob (referee Shick) and he was kinda like 'Oh, ohhhh ... I don't know about that.' But it never hit the post. You didn't hear anything. And Fuhrsie didn't stop it. There's no other explanation."
"The net moved," said Kings coach Andy Murray. "Everybody in the rink saw the net move. When Donald came back to the bench, he told us it was in."
Calgary's problem wasn't a faulty net or a bad call, it was giving up too many uncontested shots.
Why, Fuhr, the scratch golfer, must've thought he'd wandered onto a driving range and guys were hitting drivers at him.
Not enough grit or resolve. Yeah, that third goal hurt, but if any doubt remained, Marko Tuomainen, on a drop pass from Vladimir Tsyplakov, hammered the puck from an almost identical spot as Audette into an almost identical spot -- a shade lower, being picky -- for the final strike.
L.A. improved to 4-1-1, the Flames dropped to 1-4-1.
The Flames lone goal came from Bill Lindsay, banking in that rarest of rarities these days -- a backhander -- off Fiset and in.
The Flames close out their home stand tonight against Vancouver.
Fuhr, showing the aging cat still has some quickness, flagged down a howitzer from Blake on a partial break. Then, on a 3-on-1 L.A. rush, he turned a Donald Audette shot away with his stick, Kings defenceman Sean O'Donnell's follow-up try blocked by Smith.
But Fuhr couldn't hold them at bay indefinitely, and at 12:43 Garry Galley's skipping, hopping point shot danced all the way through a tangle of skates and off Calgary defenceman Tommy Albelin to restore L.A.'s lead.
"A solid game," judged Murray. "I thought we broke them down in the last 10 minutes but up until then it was very close.
"I was happy with the way the team played."
His counterpart down the hall most assuredly was not.
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