Flames finally win one; Now trail Hawks 2-1 in series

No Jays talk tonight; the Blue Birds (10-4), the best team in the American League so far, were off on Monday and will start a three-game series at the Rogers Centre Tuesday against the reeling Texas Rangers (5-7).

Meanwhile, the focus in Canada was on a pair of hockey clubs: the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens, both down 0-2 in their best-of-seven Conference Quarter-Final series.

Montreal lost 4-2 to Boston, with ex-Hab Michael Ryder potting the game-winner late in the second period. Ouch. The Bruins added an empty-netter to seal the victory, and are now up 3-0 in the series.

But the series I want to talk about is the Calgary series.

One of the Flames' biggest problems against the Chicago Blackhawks going into Game Three had been their inability to protect leads. Another was giving up crucial goals in the first and last minutes of periods.

Case in point? In Game One, Calgary blew two one-goal leads, allowing Martin Havlat to score the game-tying goal with only 5:33 remaining in regulation. Havlat then beat Miikka Kiprusoff just 12 seconds into overtime.

In Game Two, the Flames actually took a 2-0 lead in the first period and things were looking good... until the second period came. Jonathan Toews beat Kiprusoff just 46 seconds into the period, and with the score tied 2-2, Toews got the eventual game-winner with only 24 ticks left heading into the intermission.

Most hockey experts would expect the Flames to come back strong in the third game; after all, Calgary has been a completely different team at the Saddledome.

But in Game Three, another "early" goal seemed to doom the Flames. Patrick Sharp scored just 2:03 into the game, giving Chicago a 1-0 advantage. Of course, as we've learned this series, the team that scores first doesn't end up having the lead at the end of the game. This time, the same "rule" applied. Calgary came back less than four minutes after the Sharp goal, before ex-Hawk Rene Bourque gave the home team the lead late in the second.

With yet another lead, the Flames this time didn't collapse. David Moss scored two goals four minutes apart early in the third to give Calgary a commanding 4-1 lead.

This time, Kiprusoff--the game's first star--made the lead stand up, stopping 16 of 17 shots in the final stanza, and 36 on the night, as Calgary finally beat the Blackhawks, staying alive in the series.

The Flames now trail 2-1, though the series could easily have been 3-0 Calgary.

We'll see if the Flames can tie the series on Wednesday night.