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"That's the man I'm looking for," beamed Calgary head coach Mike Keenan on Sunday, moments after his side's 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. "We finally found him."
The man in question is Miikka Kiprusoff, the target of semi-regular reproaches from Keenan for his sub-par play since the start of the campaign. No complaints from the boss Sunday, however, as the netminder made 35 saves - 18 of them in a furious and frantic third period - to allow the Flames to get their six-game road trip off on the right skate.
"It was an incredible performance," offered Keenan, "and you need that kind of goaltending on the road against a desperate team - they had lost three consecutive games, this is the fourth. You knew it was going to be a difficult task. He's the man of the hour, for sure."
"Kipper won that game," chimed in Owen Nolan, who accounted for one of Calgary's markers. "He was outstanding tonight. He made some huge saves to keep us in it at times."
The hero of the piece, a man of few words and even fewer facial expressions, was his usual self when asked about his performance.
"I felt pretty good," Kiprusoff shrugged. "What can I say? I'm happy with how I played and I'm happy with the two points."
By making 11 stops in the first 11 minutes of the final frame, Kiprusoff managed to keep the score knotted 1-1 and set the stage for an unlikely hero - defenceman Cory Sarich. An unlikely goal it was, too, as Sarich's knuckleball wrister somehow skipped past Nikolai Khabibulin.
"All I could see is that it hit a Chicago player after it left my stick," said Sarich, now author of 12 career markers in 566 games. "I definitely didn't catch much of it. I was just happy to see the red light go on.
The drive, for lack of a better term, wobbled past Blackhawks players Tuomo Ruutu and Magnus Johansson and Calgary colleagues Craig Conroy and Alex Tanguay before finding twine.
"I'm pretty sure I got it by (Ruutu)," said Sarich, "and after that, I thought I saw it hit some black pants in front - but I guess we wear black pants, too. Who knows?
"I'm sure the boys will have fun with it," he chuckled. "Another bullet from the point. Just as long as they go in."
Daymond Langkow doubled the visitors' lead with a power-play tip-in, a critical strike considering Chicago's Dustin Byfuglien, who set up Robert Lang's first-period goal, replied just 47 seconds later.
"They were really pressing at the end," nodded Sarich. "Give them some credit. They really cycled the puck well and it was hard to get it away form them. But we stuck with it and Kipper made some huge saves for us and here we are with the win."
The Flames were buffaloed by longtime nemesis Khabibulin until the ninth minute of the second period when Nolan unleashed a hard but long-range shot the Chicago netminder waved at with his trapper. It was the visitors' 17th shot of the evening against a netminder who entered the contest with an 18-4-2 career regular-season record against Calgary.
"That ice was atrocious," said Nolan. "I realize it was a three-on-two, but I figured I just had a better chance to just shoot and have those guys got to the net than it was trying to make a good play or a good pass. So I just put my head down and shot it as hard as I could."
"Just put the puck on the net," said Keenan approvingly. "If you shoot the puck, it's not a bad decision."
The victory is just the second in the past seven games for a Calgary club that may not be able to make its season with a great road trip, but could certainly break it with a lousy one.
"That game right there," said Nolan, "is huge.
"We've dug a big hole, we know we have to get out of it and this road trip is huge, especially with a start like this. It helps the confidence and hopefully it gets us rolling."
Calgary travels to Sunrise, Fla., Tuesday to play the Panthers.
Ben Gordon scored 34 points, Luol Deng added 29, and the Bulls beat the Charlotte Bobcats 111-95 Saturday night, winning consecutive games for the first time this season.
But despite season-high numbers from Gordon and Deng, it was Ben Wallace who drew the most praise from his teammates after grabbing 19 rebounds and scoring 10 points.
"He had an all-around outstanding game," said Bulls coach Scott Skiles. "He has been pretty active, but not quite like this. This is a game where he filled up the stat sheet."
Added Deng: "When Ben has a game like that, we're hard to beat."
The Bulls shot 54 per cent from the field. They had 23 turnovers, but were willing to look past that and savour the victory.
"The important thing is that we got the win," Deng said.
The Bobcats have dropped five straight after an impressive start.
Jason Richardson scored 22 points and Emeka Okafor added 21 points and nine rebounds.
"Okafor was a beast tonight," teammate Matt Carroll said. "He could score at will and he only took 13 shots. But I think we need to get him the ball more down low, especially when he's rolling like that. Ten-for-13, you need to get him more shots."
But the real problem for the Bobcats was their inability to get the boards. When asked about the Bobcats' 24 rebounds - the second-lowest total in team history - coach Sam Vincent was at a loss.
"Rebounding solution? I don't have a solution for it," he said.
The Bulls took control in the third quarter, building a 15-point lead behind a 22-5 point run. Gordon hit three consecutive three-pointers during that stretch, the last of which he converted into four points after being fouled by Richardson.
"That's a big part of my game," Gordon said. "Our shooting tonight shows what we're capable of."
The Bulls, who have been among the worst shooting teams in the league this season, hit 60 per cent from three-point range.
Deng scored 15 points in the first quarter, highlighted by a spectacular layup on a feed from Tyrus Thomas. The Bulls, who have struggled from the field this year, shot 60 per cent in the period.
"We are not going to shoot 50 per cent every game," Skiles said. "The wide-open ones, you have to make 80 per cent of those and tonight we did."
The Bobcats scored eight straight points to open the second quarter, tying it at 31. They converted 10 second-quarter Bulls turnovers into 19 points and eventually took the lead for the first time in the game when Jason Richardson sank a wide-open three-pointer late in the quarter.
Chicago, however, reclaimed the lead on Gordon's layup on their final possession of the half.
The Bulls continued their dominance in the fourth quarter, ultimately emptying their bench with three minutes left to play.
Bulls rookie Joakim Noah, who injured his right ankle in the pre-season, came out of the game after spraining his left ankle on the first play of the second half. He did not return.
Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace, who averaged 26 points over the last two games, finished with 17 Saturday.
"For the guys who are guarding him, they took it personally and tried to stop him," Gordon said.
The Bulls started slowly last season, but started to turn it around this time of the year. They are hoping for a repeat of that turnaround.
"We're just trying to work on getting better as a team," Wallace said. "I think that we definitely think that we can be one of the elite teams in this league, but as of late we haven't been playing like it. Tonight we came out and put together a great effort collective, as a team."
Notes: The game marked a collegiate reunion of sorts, with former Connecticut teammates Gordon and Okafor facing off. Coaches Scott Skiles and Sam Vincent were also college teammates, playing together at Michigan State. ... Okafor had double-doubles in the Bobcats' three previous games.
