Sat, Jun 05, 2004 page20

• Calgary Flames scorch Tampa in overtime

  ON THE BRINK The Calgary Flames, motivated after insinuating that NHL executives don't want them to win the Stanley Cup, are one game away from lifting the trophy

  • AP
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  No conspiracy here: The supposedly unwanted Calgary Flames are one victory away from winning the Stanley Cup.

  Oleg Saprykin scored his first goal in 18 games off a rebound of Jarome Iginla's shot 14:40 into overtime, giving the underdog Flames a 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals on Thursday night.

  Calgary, a long shot just to make the playoffs, leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 and can win its first Cup since 1989 -- and Canada's first since Montreal in 1993 -- at home tonight. Only one team in 33 years has blown a 3-2 finals lead, the 2001 New Jersey Devils against Ray Bourque's Colorado Avalanche.

  

  Calgary Flames Oleg Saprykin, right, hits his wrist shot overtime goal which defeated Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 during Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Tampa, Florida. Calgary takes a 3-2 series lead.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  "We're all excited, it's one win away, but we know how desperate they are going to be," Iginla said.

  With players from both teams badly fatigued after a lengthy sequence in which neither team could make a line change, Iginla -- who had lost his helmet in the flurry -- threw the puck on net and Saprykin, firmly planted in front, put in the rebound from the right side of the net.

  "Jarome made a great play ... I just tried to get a rebound and put it in," said Saprykin, who hadn't scored since Game 6 of the first round against Vancouver. "The guys worked so hard and every guy deserved it."

  Iginla lost his helmet while getting bumped at the side of the net, just after he nearly pushed a shot past Nikolai Khabibulin, but stayed on the ice and set up the game-winner.

  "I didn't know where the puck was, [Marcus] Nilson kept it alive and made a great pass to me. He was going to shoot but he saw me," Iginla said. "Oleg was banging away in there right in front and he deserved the goal. It was so good to see that."

  Before the game, Flames coach Darryl Sutter emphasized to his players they weren't doing enough around the Lightning's net, especially in getting rebounds and screening Khabibulin.

  The Flames excelled again in a Game 5 -- they are 4-0 in the pivotal games, all on the road -- by rallying around Sutter's stinging remarks on Wednesday insinuating top NHL executives don't want a small-market, blue-collar Canadian team to win the Cup.

  Sutter's blistering comments, made in reaction to Flames forward Ville Nieminen's one-game suspension for ramming Vincent Lecavalier into the glass in Game 4, drew a sharp rebuke from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

  But the us-vs-them mentality apparently motivated the Flames, who outworked the Lightning while outshooting them 25-12 in the first two periods and 36-28 overall. The Lightning stayed in the game -- the first to feature the up-and-down play expected before the series started -- only because of a goal in the final minute of the first period (Martin St. Louis) and the first minute of the third (Fredrik Modin on a power play).

  "You're not going to win a Game 5 playing the first 40 minutes like we did, when a team wins all the battles, is a quicker team ... it comes back to grab you," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Now we have to go to their building and grab one and force Game 7."

  Calgary is 8-1 in the playoffs following a loss. The Lightning have alternated winning and losing for 12 consecutive games, tying a record set by the 1988 Devils.
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