Habs rebound for 4-3 win over Flames
Posted: Friday November 20, 1998 12:48 AM
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Canadiens goalie Jeff Hackett (31) kicks the puck away from the waiting Cory Stillman AP |
MONTREAL (AP) - A combination of some big hits and the first goals of the
season by Jonas Hoglund and Eric Houde helped the Montreal Canadiens end
their four-game losing streak.
Forward Turner Stevenson supplied the hits and added three assists as
the Canadiens scored a comeback 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday
night.
"Sometimes a goal can turn a game around and sometimes a hit can do
it," said the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Stevenson, who plowed into veteran Steve
Smith to free the puck and set up Houde's winning goal at 10:25 of the
third period.
Hoglund, a former Flame, tied the game at 7:16 of the third period as
the Canadiens erased a 3-2 Calgary lead and gave goaltender Jeff Hackett
the win in his first start with Montreal.
Vladimir Malakhov and Benoit Brunet also scored for the Canadiens, who
have not lost at home to the Flames in four games since November 6, 1993.
Clarke Wilm, Andrew Cassels and Jason Wiemer scored for Calgary, which
began a four-game road trip.
"We made a couple of mistakes and it cost us two goals," said Flames
forward Valeri Bure. "Then they just took over."
Hackett, acquired along with defenseman Eric Weinrich on Monday in a
six-player swap with Chicago, played a strong game, but was beaten on some
strange goals, including one during a two-man Calgary advantage.
"That's how my year has gone," said Hackett, who is 3-6-1 this season.
"But I'll just keep working on my game and try to get back to the way I was
playing for the last three years."
Montreal outshot Calgary 36-19, turning up the heat in the third.
"After they scored on the five-on-three it seemed to spark us," said
Mark Recchi, who played his 561st consecutive game despite a bout of
pneumonia. "That was our best third period in a long time. Our tendency has
been to go out of our system when we get down a goal, but tonight, we
stayed with our game plan for the first time in a long time."
Montreal lost two players during the game. Defenseman Brett Clarke was
taken to a hospital with a concussion following an open-ice hit by Cale
Hulse while playing forward in the first period. Patrick Poulin was injured
by Todd Simpson during a fight. The Canadiens said Poulin suffered a knee
injury.
Malakhov beat Jean-Sebastien Giguere on Montreal's first shot 6:42
into the game, but Wiemer got it back at 18:13 when he tipped Smith's shot
past a screened Hackett.
Wilm jumped into the crease to bat a loose puck through Hackett's pads
at 14:06 of the second.
"It wasn't pretty," said Wilm after scoring his first NHL goal. "I
went to the net and Dubie [Steve Dubinsky] threw it out front. I just
shoveled away until the light went on."
Brunet batted a flying pass in from the edge of the crease at 16:21.
Montreal was down two men -- thanks to a bench penalty called when
coach Alain Vigneault complained after a charging call on Stevenson -- when
Valeri Bure's point shot went in off Cassels at 19:01.
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