Turning up the heat

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Martin Gelinas started the Stanley Cup finals the same way he usually ends playoff series, with a big goal. No wonder the Calgary Flames again looked right at home on the road in these improbable playoffs.
The Flames shook off a five-day layoff and any jitters about playing for hockey's biggest prize, scoring on their first shot in the finals since 1989 and riding a superb two-way game by star Jarome Iginla to surprise the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 in Game 1 Tuesday night.
Iginla, stamping himself as hockey's best player in the kind of playoffs usually enjoyed only by superstars, scored short-handed to make it 2-0 in the second.
Power play nullified
He also so disrupted what had been a dominating Tampa Bay power play that the Lightning started looking tentative until Martin St. Louis scored early in the third period, with Calgary already up by three goals.
"That short-handed goal was the difference for us," coach Darryl Sutter said. "That was a huge goal, a second-effort goal. He had everything going."
The Flames, also getting a goal from Stephane Yelle only 2:47 after Iginla scored in the second, improved to a remarkable 9-2 on the road with five consecutive victories -- including all three games at San Jose in the Western Conference finals.
Game 2 is here Thursday night.
"On the road, it seems like we're closer and our focus is really good," Yelle said.
Iginla was a game-long force on the penalty kill as the Flames killed off all but one of Tampa Bay's five power plays. The Lightning had scored on seven of their previous 14 power plays and have at least one man-advantage goal in seven straight games.
That hesitancy carried over to even strength as the Lightning created few odd-man rushes and never developed the effective transition game they had in the first three rounds.
Nearly perfect
It didn't help that Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, a third-teamer in San Jose earlier this season, was sharp and in control from the start, or exactly what Nikolai Khabibulin wasn't. Kiprusoff stopped 23 of 24 shots.
Calgary, the first Canadian team to play for the Cup in 10 years, started the finals the same way they ended the San Jose series: with key goals by Gelinas and Iginla and a determined defensive effort in which Iginla was just as good without the puck as he was with it.
The Flames got a huge and potential momentum-swinging break on their very first shot, with 3:02 gone, when Craig Conroy's slap shot from the high slot deflected off Tampa Bay forward Dave Andreychuk's shoulder and again off Gelinas, causing it to glance off Khabibulin's right leg and trickle across the goal line.
Gelinas became known as "The Eliminator" for scoring the decisive goal in each of Calgary's first three playoff series victories, only to start this series with his seventh of the playoffs.
That the Flames quickly seized control was no surprise; they own a 10-4 scoring advantage in the first period and are 11-1 when they score first. They haven't allowed a first-period goal in an NHL-record nine consecutive playoff games, helping them start each of their last three playoff series with road victories, at Detroit, San Jose and Tampa Bay.
"Each series has been so grueling, we were glad to have the rest," Iginla said, referring to Calgary's layoff since winning the Western Conference last Wednesday.