Iginla, Lecavalier drop the gloves
Stars waste little time squaring off in Game 3
STANLEY CUP FINALS NOTEBOOK
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 2:28 a.m. ET May 30, 2004
CALGARY, Alberta - There they were, arguably the best players on their respective teams, dropping the gloves in a Stanley Cup Finals game.
Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla and Tampa Bay Lightning star center Vincent Lecavalier squared off in a fight 6:17 into the first period of Game Three on Saturday night.
No one landed any haymakers and there was no clear victor, but it was unusual seeing two highly skilled players trading punches.
“Everybody knows what’s on the line,” Iginla said. “Both teams raised their game physically last game and I thought we really upped it as a group physically (tonight). And the fight just kind of happened.”
It was the third fight of the playoffs for Iginla, who had four major penalties during the regular season. It definitely was out of character for Lecavalier, who had just two major penalties in 81 regular-season games.
“We were just battling in the corner,” Lecavalier said. “There were just a lot of emotions out there, and it happens.”
Lecavalier was one of Tampa Bay’s most physical players in Game Two. Asked if that had anything to do with the brawl, Flames coach Darryl Sutter said, “I don’t think so. Hey, it’s about excitement and enthusiasm.”
Iginla went on to set up Chris Simon’s power-play goal in the second period, then capped the scoring with the man advantage late in the third as the Flames registered a 3-0 win. That made Iginla just the fourth player to register a “Gordie Howe hat trick” - a goal, assist and fight - in the Stanley Cup Finals.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last was Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Mike Busniuk on May 17, 1980. The others were Wayne Cashman of the Boston Bruins on May 7, 1974 and Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr on May 7, 1972.
The six fighting majors in this series are the highest total in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1986, when the Flames lost to the Montreal Canadiens.
Kiprusoff bounces back again
Miikka Kiprusoff’s fifth shutout of the postseason Saturday night put him into a third-place tie for the most in one year.
Kiprusoff is even with Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who had five shutouts last year during Anaheim’s run to the Stanley Cup finals that was just as unlikely as the one Kiprusoff is backstopping for the Calgary Flames.
The Flames beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 series lead.
“The reason we’re here is because of Kipper,” said Shean Donovan, who scored Calgary’s second goal. “All season he’s played great, and even the game before — four goals — we didn’t play good in front of him.”
Kiprusoff, acquired early in the season from San Jose, is 7-1 with a 1.17 goals-against average and four shutouts following a Flames’ loss in the playoffs.
Calgary needed a rebound game Saturday after a 4-1 loss two nights earlier evened the best-of-seven series.
New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur topped Giguere’s efforts a year ago and had a record seven shutouts to lead the Devils to the championship. Detroit’s Dominik Hasek had six in Detroit’s Stanley Cup-winning run in 2002.
Power shift
The Lightning failed to score a power-play goal for the first time in nine games after entering its Game 3 loss having converted on 11 of 37 chances.
In a role reversal, Calgary’s power play connected twice in four chances in a 3-0 victory Saturday night. The Flames somehow managed to reach the finals and then split the first two games of the series despite failing on 84 of 95 opportunities through 21 playoff games.
Calgary hadn’t scored two power-play goals in a game since going 2-for-5 against Vancouver since Game 7 of the first round.
Lightning struck down
A pair of Tampa Bay forwards, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis, had their point streaks snapped at five games.
Richards had three goals and five assists during the run, while St. Louis — the NHL’s regular-season scoring champion — had two goals and five assists.
Early start
Every game of the Stanley Cup finals is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern time, so that makes for early start times in Calgary — two hours behind in the Mountain time zone.
Instead of morning skates that usually occur at 10:30 and 11:30, on Saturday they were moved up an hour to accommodate the 6 p.m. local game time.
“I don’t mind the 8 o’clock game but with the 6 o’clock game you just kind of feel rushed almost all day,” Lightning forward Martin St. Louis said. “You’ve just got to go to bed earlier, try to take a nap earlier, eat earlier. It’s very simple.”
The final horn of the Flames’ 3-0 victory in Game 3 on Saturday night was sounded at 8:50 local time. With the sun setting in Calgary after 10 p.m., happy fans in Calgary were left with nearly two hours of daylight for partying on 17th Ave.
The Associated Press and SportsTicker contributed to this report
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The Senators held a lead twice in the first period, but Pittsburgh's offensive fire power proved to be too much to handle. James Neal and Jarome Iginla each score two as the Penguins cruise to an impressive 7-3 victory in Game 4.
