Calgary, AB (SportsNetwork.com) – Jiri Hudler scored the first of two Calgary
goals with the netminder pulled in the closing minutes to help forge a tie,
then netted the winner in a shootout to lift the Calgary Flames to an
improbable 5-4 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at the Saddledome.
Hudler scored with 2:22 remaining to pull the Flames within one and Curtis
Glencross tied it with just five seconds to play in regulation. After the
overtime period could not solve things and each team scored once in the first
three rounds of the shootout, Hudler snapped a wrister past Scott Clemmensen
and Travis Zajac’s response glanced off the glove of Karri Ramo to end it.
Ramo finished with 25 saves for the Flames, who finished 4-1-0 on a five-game
homestand. Glencross netted two goals and Josh Jooris also scored in the
victory.
“I don’t know how they do it, but we found a way again,” said Flames coach Bob
Hartley, whose club now has a league-high five wins when trailing after two
periods. We’re not making it easy, but we’re making it interesting.”
Clemmensen gave Cory Schneider a night off for the first time this season and
made 33 saves in defeat. Adam Henrique notched a goal and an assist, while
Mike Cammalleri scored in his return to Calgary. Cammalleri, who also had a
goal in the shootout, played the past 2 1/2 seasons with the Flames before
signing as a free agent in July.
“I think it was a real entertaining game,” said Cammalleri. “I had a lot of
fun playing it.”
Schneider had started each of New Jersey’s first 20 games, something even the
great Martin Brodeur did not accomplish during his long tenure with the
Devils. But, coming off a shutout of Edmonton on Friday night, Devils coach
Pete DeBoer finally gave his top netminder a breather.
The Devils were clinging to a 4-2 lead when Calgary pulled Ramo with more than
three minutes to play and the move paid off when Hudler scored his seventh
goal of the season off a goal-mouth scramble with 2:22 remaining.
Ramo exited after the ensuing faceoff and Calgary continued to pressure the
New Jersey net, finally tying it with five seconds to play. The Flames
outnumbered the Devils in close and Glencross was able to lift a shot over
Clemmensen to tie it.
Each team had great chances to win in an overtime period that featured eight
shots. Johnny Gaudreau had a wrist shot from the slot hit the glove of a
screened Clemmensen with 3 1/2 minutes left and Marek Zidlicky was all alone
at the left side of the crease with 1:22 to play and was denied by Ramo.
“It’s disappointing. That’s a game we should’ve won,” said DeBoer. “I thought
we had a dozen chances to extend the lead.”
The Devils grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period. Henrique took a Patrik
Elias feed and snapped a shot home from below the right circle at the 4:51
mark and Cammalleri ripped a shot from the low right circle off a cross-ice
pass from Jaromir Jagr with 6:14 remaining for his team-high eighth goal.
Glencross scored his first of the night off a New Jersey turnover, firing a
shot from the right circle over Clemmensen’s glove midway through the second,
but the Devils regained a two-goal margin just seven seconds before the end of
the period when Zajac knocked in the rebound of a Henrique shot that rang off
the post.
The Flames again made it a one-goal game just 2:26 into the third when Jooris
swept home a rebound on a power play, but again the Devils opened a two-goal
edge midway through the period on Tuomo Ruutu’s fifth goal.
Game Notes
The Devils are 1-1-1 on a four-game western Canada road trip that ends Tuesday
in Vancouver … Cammalleri scored 89 goals in 216 games with Calgary over two
separate stints with the club … The Devils had killed off 23 straight power
plays before Jooris scored in the third period … The Flames improved to 3-1
in shootouts this season … The Devils dropped to 1-2 in the extra round,
losing for the 19th time in their last 20 shootouts … Calgary starts a
three-game road trip Tuesday in Anaheim.
