CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- It was a forgettable night for Chris
Osgood.
Mike Cammalleri scored a goal and added two assists as the
Calgary Flames took advantage of the shaky Osgood and beat the
Detroit Red Wings, 5-3, on Monday night.
Osgood had been in net for each of Detroit's victories in a
four-game winning streak. However, he made an early exit and
starting a fifth straight game for the first time this season.
He was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots.
"By far that was my worst game in this building," said Osgood,
who was pulled by coach Mike Babcock 6 minutes into the second
period. "It wasn't that I didn't feel good, I love playing in
Calgary, I always feel good here, but it just didn't happen for
me tonight."
The only goal of the first period came at 10:57 when Dion
Phaneuf scored his 11th goal on Calgary's second shot. Phaneuf's
harmless-looking snap shot from just over the blue line beat
Osgood on his glove side.
Jamie Lundmark, Curtis Glencross and Craig Conroy, into an empty
net, also scored for Calgary.
Detroit rallied in the final 10 minutes behind goals from Johan
Franzen and Jiri Hudler to get within 4-3. Pavel Datsyuk added
his 30th goal for the Red Wings.
Lundmark wristed a shot from deep in the corner toward the net
that glanced off Osgood's pad and trickled underneath him to
make it 2-0 at 2:21. The crowd immediately serenaded Osgood with
derisive chants of "Os-good, Os-good."
About three minutes later, Cammalleri skated behind the net and
banked in a puck off Osgood's pad for his 36th. Osgood was then
replaced with Ty Conklin. Having surrendered three goals on 14
shots, Osgood went straight to the dressing room and didn't
return for the remainder of the game.
Osgood dismissed the bad outing, saying he had "zero" concern
about it even though it came only three weeks before the
playoffs.
"I don't think about it when I play great, you just move on and
play the next game," Osgood said. "You guys make too big deal
out of these games. If this happens the day before the playoffs,
it doesn't matter. What matters is what happens in the first
playoff game."
Babcock also shrugged it off as just one of those nights.
"If you didn't have such good history and if you didn't believe
in him, you might think like that but that's not how I look at
it at all," Babcock said. "He had a tough night, but in saying
that he won us the Cup last year. He was great for us.
"We don't need him to be first star, we just need him to be
regular and he's very capable of doing that."
The Flames opened up a five-point lead on the idle Vancouver
Canucks atop the Northwest Division.
"Now it's crunch time. We want to just keep winning our games
and let these games dwindle down and try to win the division,"
Conroy said. "Noboby's been hotter than Vancouver and we know
that but we felt this was a must game, we didn't want to give
them another opportunity like we did against St. Louis."
On a night that Osgood had no luck, Flames goaltender Miikka
Kiprusoff appeared to have plenty of it.
Kiprusoff made 30 saves, including 14 in the third period.
"Something we were trying to do was get the puck on net a lot
and try and cause some havoc in front of the net," Cammalleri
said. "We got some bounces that went our way so it was nice."
Mikael Samuelsson had a breakaway in the second period, and
after getting around a sprawled Kiprusoff, his shot hit the
post, hit Kiprusoff in the leg, hit the post again, and slid
along the line before being cleared by Cory Sarich.
In the third period, a point shot from Niklas Kronwall smashed
off the end boards and ricocheted off the back of Kiprusoff's
outstretched pad before being covered.
"You've got to have some bounces like that if you're going to
win a hockey game," Sarich said. "We weren't great in the third.
It was a learning experience against a great club. I think we
tightened up a little bit. We're going to have to find a way to
take some momentum away from them and get it on our side."
After Glencross' one-timer at 5:31 of the third put Calgary
ahead 4-1, Franzen started the Red Wings rally with his 31st
goal at 10:22. Hudler made it 4-3 with 6:57 left.
Conroy clinched Calgary's win with 28 seconds remaining.
The Red Wings outshot Calgary 33-27 overall, 16-9 in the third
period.