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Thursday, Dec. 2 7:30pm ET
Few see Flames' Brathwaite shut out Islanders | |||||
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BOX SCORE
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- Fred Brathwaite should have good memories of his second career shutout. It's a good thing, because not too many people saw it. The 27-year-old goaltender turned aside 24 shots Thursday night and the Calgary Flames scored four second-period goals in a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders. "A shutout is a shutout. I'll take them," said Brathwaite, who earned his fourth win of the season in front of only 6,513 fans at the Nassau Coliseum. "I don't have very many of them." Brathwaite, making his eighth straight start, was not seriously tested as he picked up his first shutout since Jan. 8 against Dallas. In fact, he faced only four shots in the first period. "That's the toughest thing for a goalie, you just stand there waiting," Brathwaite said. "We played well defensively and got some offense tonight." At the other end of the ice, Islanders goalie Felix Potvin, seeing his first action in three games, stopped the first 15 shots he faced -- including 13 during a scoreless first period -- but couldn't keep the Flames at bay early in the second. Calgary scored four times, in a span of 6:42 within the first half of the second period, to turn it into a rout. "Any time you let up four goals in 10 minutes, you're not too happy no matter how they go in," Potvin said. The Islanders fell to 2-7-1 at home and have been shut out three times at the Nassau Coliseum. "You should win all the home games, that's most important," Islanders captain Kenny Jonsson said." In the decisive period, the Flames, who snapped a five-game road losing streak, outshot the Islanders 21-7. Calgary finished with 42 shots on goal. After New York's Zdeno Chara landed a crushing hit on Jason Wiemer behind the net, Valeri Bure picked up the loose puck and fed it in front of the Islanders net. A goalmouth scramble ensued and Cory Stillman scored his 10th goal, at 2:42, when he slid the puck past Potvin after the Islanders goalie lost control of his stick. Just 12 seconds later, the Flames took a 2-0 lead when Cale Hulse worked the puck free in the corner and passed it to Clarke Wilm in the right circle. Wilm fired a shot that deflected off Chara's skate past Potvin for his fourth goal. Mathieu Biron picked up a double minor for high-sticking at the same time of Wilm's score, which led to Tommy Albelin's fourth goal of the season. Jeff Shantz moved the puck to Bure who passed to Albelin at the right point. The defenseman fired a shot that beat Potvin high on the glove side just 6:47 into the period. Derek Morris' power-play goal 2:37 later finished the barrage. Phil Housley moved the puck to Morris, who one-timed a shot from the left point past Potvin, on the short side, for a 4-0 lead. Calgary, the NHL's third-most penalized team, only picked up three penalties compared to New York's seven. "We weren't doing anything after the whistle, they were," Calgary coach Brian Sutter said of New York's infractions. "We got a couple of breaks tonight because they did stuff after the whistle." The Flames made it 5-0 at 2:20 of the third, on their first shot of the period, when Jarome Iginla took a pass from Hnat Domenichelli and shot it past Potvin for his fourth goal. Rookie goalie Roberto Luongo had made the two previous starts for the Islanders and was 1-1. Housley picked up two assists, for 790 in his career, to move past Peter Stastny into 25th on the NHL list. Bure also had two assists.
"It feels nice," Housley said. "But it feels even nicer after
a win."
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