TAMPA, Florida, 27 May 2004 — Mikka Kiprusoff stopped 23 shots and Jarome Iginla scored a short-handed goal as the Calgary Flames defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Tuesday to draw first blood in the Stanley Cup finals.
Behind a ferocious display of forechecking and sparkling goaltending, the Flames put a damper on Tampa’s first ever Stanley Cup party and continued on their Cinderella run toward their first title in 15 years.
Iginla, with is 11th of the postseason, Martin Gelinas, Stephane Yelle and Chris Simon accounted for the Calgary scoring while Martin St. Louis, the NHL’s leading scorer, ruined Kiprusoff’s shutout bid with a third-period power-play goal.
Game One of the best-of-seven series marked the first time since the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the final in 1994 that the Canadian national anthem had been heard prior to the start of a Stanley Cup contest.
And the victory was sure to have triggered wild celebrations north of the US border, as the Flames look to become the first Canadian team to drink from Lord Stanley’s mug since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
In the last 75 years the winner of Game One has gone on to lift the Stanley Cup 61 times, the Lightning now needing a victory in Game Two today to avoid heading to Calgary trailing the series 2-0.
“It was nice to go out there and get that first win, we have confidence in our room,” said Iginla, a Hart Trophy finalist awarded to the league’s MVP.
“It’s good start. I really didn’t know what to expect tonight I was very excited and pretty nervous.
“I was more nervous than usual, this is something I have been dreaming about since I was seven years old ... four wins away from a Stanley Cup.”
Hosting their first ever Stanley Cup game, Tampa gave the Lightning a thunderous ovation as they skated onto the ice.
But just three minutes into the opening period the sellout crowd of 21,674 fell silent when Andrew Ference’s shot from the point bounced off Craig Conroy’s shoulder before ricocheting off Gelinas’ skate and trickling across the goal-line past netminder Nikolai Khabibulin.
Underlining his Hart Trophy credentials, Iginla turned in a dominating performance at both ends of the rink, killing penalties, dishing out crunching hits and scoring a key short-handed goal that put the Flames in control at 2-0.
Scooping up a loose puck in his own end, Iginla broke in alone on Khabibulin, who made the initial save but could not control the puck, the Calgary captain jamming home his own rebound.
Continuing to apply pressure, Yelle found the back of net 2:37 later to send the Flames into the second intermission 3-0 up.
Sputtering on man-advantage situations four times, the playoffs top power play finally got on target early in third period, when St. Louis one-timed a shot past Kiprusoff bringing the crowd to their feet.
But the Lightning rally stalled, Kiprusoff keeping Tampa from getting any closer.
“It’s a must win we don’t want go down 2-0,” Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk said looking ahead to today’s game.
