By Aaron McCracken
Date: 4/13/2001

The Saint John Flames opened their Calder Cup quest on Thursday night with a dominating 3-0 win over the visiting Portland Pirates. Derrick Walser and Sergei Varlamov each tallied a goal and an assist, while Martin Brochu made 21 saves in the Flames’ net for his first postseason shutout.

Saint John opened the scoring early on the Power Play with Matt Pettinger off on a tripping call. Sergei Varlamov held the puck in at the point and slid it across to Derrick Walser who rifled it past Corey Hirsch to stake the Flames to a 1-0 lead. Miika Elomo had two terrific chances to add to the total in the 1^st, but was unable to the get off a good shot. The Flames were put to the test late in the first when Chris Clark was assessed a major penalty (albeit a questionable one) for high sticking. The Flames penalty kill looked very strong and was able to escape the man disadvantage unscathed.

The tables turned on the Pirates midway through the second period when Portland took a couple of undisciplined penalties and found themselves down two men for an entire two minutes. The Flames’ 5-on-3 power play looked rusty, but Segeri Varlamov was able to single handedly skate around three Pirate defenders and backhand it by Hirsch to put the Flames up 2-0. Just over a minute later, Derrick Walser shot the puck high on a breakaway, and Steve Begin potted the rebound over a downed Corey Hirsch to make it 3-0.

The Flames played a conservative game from that point on, and were able to control the pace of the game. Martin Brochu was forced to make a couple of great saves late in the 2^nd and 3^rd period, but the Flames defensive coverage proved to be too much for the confused Pirates, who were unable to muster any prolonged attack.

• The line of Steve Begin, Rico Fata, and Chris Clark played a NHL caliber game. They were all very physical and made several beautiful passes. Marty Murray, Sergei Varlamov, and Jason Botterill saw a ton of icetime and created several good scoring opportunities. Chris St. Croix and Derrick Walser played very solid on the blueline. St. Croix broke up a number of Portland scoring opportunities.

• Martin Brochu proved to be a capable #1 playoff goalie, calmly turning aside 21 shots against his former team.

• The Flames’ scored twice on the power play (in six chance) and were successful on all six penalty kills. The special teams were clearly the difference in this game.

Boxscore ("Stayzer" is actually Chris St. Croix): http://scoreboard.canoe.ca/11424/FINA-89-AHL-POR-SNB-11424-1.html

1. Walser (Varlamov) PP
2. Varlamov (unassisted) PP
3. Begin (Walser, Scoville)

3. Martin Brochu, 21 saves

2. Steve Begin, goal and a ton of hits

1) Walser, goal and an assist.

Murray – Varlamov – Botterill

Begin – Fata – Clark

Betts – Roche – Elomo

Doull – Dewar

Walser – St. Croix

Montador – Scoville

Mrozik – Dupont

Daniel Tkaczuk (concussion), Mike Martin (foot), and Gatean Royer (knee) were scratched. Saint John native Jeff Dewar (St. Thomas University) continued his amateur try-out, although his only shift came during the dying seconds of the game.

• Former Flame Sacha "The Masha" Lakovic scored the overtime winner on Wednesday as the Rochester Americans downed the Philadelphia Phantoms 4-3.

• The Kentucky Thoroughblades, the top seed in the Western Conference, are one game away from elimination after losing twice back-to-back games in overtime at home.

• Attendance has been absolutely horrible during the AHL playoffs. Cincinnati barely drew 1000 fans, while Western-leading Kentucky has drawn under 1500 fans for its two games. Even Hartford and Rochester, who routinely draw 7000-8000 fans, only saw 3000 come to their playoff openers.

Aaron McCracken is a freelance writer from New Brunswick. He covers the Saint John Flames for Calgary Puck / Fire on Ice. He can be reached at aaron@calgarypuck.com .