Flames 3, Lightning 2, OT
AP Photos
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — OK, maybe the Calgary Flames aren't America's Team — coach Darryl Sutter certainly doesn't think they are. That doesn't mean they can't be Stanley Cup champions.
The Flames, proving once again that will can overcome skill, outworked and outshot the Tampa Bay Lightning before finally beating them 3-2 on Oleg Saprykin's overtime goal in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals Thursday.
Now, as improbable as it might seem, a small-market team that missed the playoffs for the previous seven seasons is one victory away from winning hockey's biggest prize. Game 6 is Saturday night in Calgary, which can become the first Canadian city since Montreal in 1993 to host a Cup-clinching game.
Even if Sutter believes nobody south of the border, especially in the NHL's New York headquarters, wants the Flames to win the Stanley Cup in the last finals before a potentially lengthy labor lockout.
”We know what our role in this is and we're going to fight through it, do everything we can,” Sutter said, a day after alleging many in the league don't want Calgary to win the Cup.
Team captain Jarome Iginla, who scored his 13th goal before setting up Saprykin's winner, almost can't believe how close the Flames are to becoming the most improbable NHL champion since the 1991 Penguins. Pittsburgh made the playoffs only once in 10 years before winning the first of its consecutive Stanley Cups.
”But there's so much work to be done and we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. This is too close,” Iginla said. ”They are going to be more desperate than ever … but we plan on being pretty desperate, too.”
Lightning coach John Tortorella probably wishes his team had shown more of that desperation in Game 5. Tampa Bay rallied from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits on goals in the last minute of the first period (Martin St. Louis) and the first minute of the third (Fredrik Modin), but that was all goalie Miikka Kiprusoff allowed on 28 shots.
The Flames, tying a league record with their 10th road victory, were the dominant team nearly all night, as evidenced by their edge in shots: 14-3 in the second period and 36-28 overall.
”If Martin Cibak, Chris Dingman and Ben Clymer is your best line, it's simply not going to happen to you, no offense to them,” said Tortorella, whose stars were again outplayed by Calgary's lesser-known players. ”You always talk about your best players needing to be your best players … (but) they weren't there, along with everyone else.”
Still, the Lightning had plenty of chances to win — St. Louis nearly did just before the third period ended — before Saprykin gathered Iginla's rebound and stuffed it past Nikolai Khabibulin at 14:40 of overtime.
The goal came just as the Lightning were making a badly needed line change amid a lengthy flurry in which Iginla lost his helmet while nearly scoring himself.
”The goal was a bit of a mistake,” Dingman said. ”We didn't have all of our guys out there. It's unfortunate to lose a game that way. It's pretty disheartening.”
However, Dingman can offer evidence to his teammates that a 3-2 advantage doesn't automatically guarantee the Stanley Cup. He played for the 2001 Colorado Avalanche, who lost Game 5 at home to New Jersey before winning two straight and the Cup — the only team in 33 years to rally from a 3-2 deficit during the finals.
”We said to ourselves we've got nothing to save it for and we're going to win and we ended up winning that game (Game 6),” he said. ”You win one game and the momentum swings back in your favor.”
But while the Lightning won Game 4 Monday night in Calgary, winning Saturday night will be much more difficult, before the famed Sea of Red fans who desperately want their blue-collar team to win the Stanley Cup at home. The Flames' fans are so excited, they've jammed the Saddledome for the last two road games just to watch on the scoreboard's TV screens.
”It's going to be crazy, but those are distractions we have to stay away from,” Stephane Yelle said.
Tortorella, for one, isn't convinced the series is over. Asked if he expected to return home for Game 7 Monday, he said, ”Yes, we will.”
Notes: Kiprusoff is 8-1 following a loss and has won his last five overtime games. … Fourteen of the 18 teams that won Game 5 in a tied series won the Cup. … Saprykin's goal was his first in 18 games. … Calgary is 13-1 when scoring first. The winning team has scored first in every game in the finals. … The Flames are 4-0 in Game 5s, all on the road. … Calgary is 5-1 in overtime, Tampa Bay is 2-2. … The Flames' Toni Lydman returned from a 20-game injury absence to assist on Martin Gelinas' power-play goal 2:13 into the game.
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