Sunday, May 30, 2004
Calgary could take a 3-1 lead, but only if the Lightning plays out of character.
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- One trend is developing in a furiously played Stanley Cup final: the first team to one goal wins.
Chris Simon put in his own rebound after a period and a half of frantic, physical but scoreless play and the Calgary Flames took the series lead by beating Tampa Bay 3-0 in Game 3 Saturday night.
Simon and Shean Donovan scored just over three minutes apart in an uptempo second period after Calgary, playing the first Cup final game on Canadian ice in 10 years, was held to two shots in the first period.
Flames captain Jarome Iginla set up Simon's goal and scored with 1:32 remaining to seal Calgary's first final win since the Flames last won the Cup in 1989.
The upstart Flames, out of the playoffs for seven straight seasons until being revived by coach Darryl Sutter, could take a 3-1 lead by winning Game 4 Monday -- but only if Tampa Bay halts its monthlong trend of following a loss with a win.
Alternated wins
The Lightning have alternated wins and losses for nine straight games, three short of New Jersey's 12-game streak in 1988 -- a fitting run, too, because Tampa Bay has usually followed a strong game with a weak one. The Lightning had evened the series by winning 4-1 in Game 2 following an uninspired 4-1 loss.
In all three games so far, the winning team has scored first and, with both teams sensing how important that first goal would be again, the game started at a frenetic pace and stayed that way. For good reason, too; Calgary is 12-1 and Tampa Bay is 11-2 when scoring first.
Tampa Bay wasted an excellent chance to take the early lead, getting more power-play chances (3) than Calgary did shots (2) in the first period. The Lightning power play, which was converting at an unusually high 20 percent rate, finished 0-for-4.
Making the night even worse for Tampa Bay, forward Ruslan Fedotenko was helped off the ice after cutting his right cheekbone while being slammed into the boards by Robyn Regehr with about six minutes remaining. Fedotenko, who has 10 playoff goals, looked dazed when he left the ice.
The Flames got the initial goal when Iginla skated down the right wing boards, hopped over defenseman Darryl Sydor while keeping possession of the puck and fed Simon for a wrist shot from the right circle that missed. Simon gathered his own rebound and stuffed it past Nikolai Khabibulin inside the near post at 13:53 of the second.
That ignited the Flames' Sea of Red, the jersey-wearing crowd of 19,221 that calls itself the loudest in the league, and it got even louder a few minutes later.
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