|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- The Dallas Stars are getting sick of
playing against Fred Brathwaite.
|  | | Calgary's Chris Clark chases the puck as Dallas' Sami Helenius (6) crashes into his goalie, Marty Turco.
|
Brathwaite made 21 saves to extend his undefeated streak against
Dallas to seven games, and the Calgary Flames hung on for a 3-2 victory Monday night.
In seven career games against Dallas, Brathwaite is 3-0-4 with
two shutouts and a 1.05 goals-against average.
"We came out hard from the drop of the puck, we worked hard,
and we deserved this win," Brathwaite said.
Valeri Bure sparked the Calgary offense with a goal and an
assist. Jarome Iginla added his team-leading 24th goal of the
season and rookie Ronald Petrovicky scored his first career goal.
Brendan Morrow scored both goals for Dallas, his 16th and 17th
goals of the season.
Brathwaite's best save of the night came midway through the
third period with Dallas pressing to narrow a 3-1 gap.
On a two-on-one rush, Shaun Van Allen slipped a wide pass out to
Richard Matvichuk, but the Stars defenseman was robbed when
Brathwaite acrobatically dove across the crease to knock away with
his stick what appeared to be a sure goal.
"It was pretty much a desperation save," Brathwaite said. "I
just tried to get across as quick as I could. If he had put it
anywhere else it would have been in the net."
The crowd of 16,650 responded with an ovation for the popular
goalie that went on for several seconds as the play carried on.
"It was a heck of a save, you can't take anything away from
him," Matvichuk said. "We played horrible for the first two
periods and although we came to play in the third period and
dominated them, in this league, you can't play 20 minutes of hockey
and win."
The victory enabled Calgary to close to 10 points of idle
Edmonton for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western
Conference.
"Tonight, everybody played well defensively and although they
came after us in the third, we held them off," Brathwaite said.
"This is what we need over the final 20 games."
Calgary also halted a four-game home winless streak with just
their second home victory in the nine games (2-5-2).
The Flames, coming off a defeat Saturday night against Edmonton,
responded with one of their more energetic efforts of the season.
"We played a full 60 minutes tonight and we had that same
effort against Edmonton, only (goalie) Tommy Salo stole the game
from us," Brathwaite said.
Calgary outhustled Dallas in the first period and took a 1-0
lead off Bure's goal at 8:31.
After Clarke Wilm's heavy hit along the end boards forced a
Dallas turnover, Marc Savard centered the puck to Bure, who beat
goalie Marty Turco with a low shot past.
Iginla made it 2-0 just 25 seconds into the second period when
he worked himself free in the slot and snapped a shot from the
faceoff circle through Turco's pads.
Petrovicky made it 3-0 at 4:37 of the third period before Morrow
scored his first of the night 51 seconds later.
Dallas remained one point behind the Pacific Division-leading
San Jose Sharks, who also lost at St. Louis.
"I know I was looking up at the scoreboard and saw that St.
Louis was beating San Jose, giving us a chance at first place,"
Morrow said. "Maybe scoreboard-watching is something we've been
doing too much of rather than concentrating on winning our
games."
Game notes
Calgary center Benoit Gratton, who suffered a concussion
Feb. 13, has resumed skating and might be ready to return the Flames'
lineup Thursday. ...The Flames are 10-10-3-1 against the top seven
teams in the Western Conference, but just 5-12-4-1 against the
eighth through 15th-place teams in the West.
 Send this story to a friend
|
|
ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Dallas Clubhouse
Calgary Clubhouse
RECAPS
Ottawa 3
NY Rangers 2
Vancouver 5
Minnesota 2
New Jersey 5
Florida 3
St. Louis 7
San Jose 2
Calgary 3
Dallas 2
|
