Calgary Flames News

Owen Nolan has some advice for family and friends pondering him as a pick in their hockey pool next season. ``It's going to be better than last year, let's put it that way,'' the newest Calgary Flames addition said Tuesday. The 35-year-old Nolan signed a one-year contract worth US$1.75 million in base salary with another $250,000 attainable in performance bonuses. The deal was struck Monday but announced by the NHL club on Tuesday. He heads to training camp ...

The playoff picture in the National Hockey League became clear Sunday and it did not include the Toronto Maple Leafs. A day after they sent the Montreal Canadiens home for the summer, the Maple Leafs watched their season come to an end by virtue of the New York Islanders' 3-2 shootout win over the New Jersey Devils. That gave the Islanders the final post-season spot in the Eastern Conference with ...

It is a nervy week for two Canadian NHL clubs still battling for playoff spots _ the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. And both have key tests on Tuesday night. The Leafs, who are 11th in the Eastern Conference but only two points behind Carolina, the New York Islanders and Montreal, play host to the Hurricanes. The Canadiens are at home against the sixth-place New York Rangers. The ...

Finding some elbow room in the tight Northwest Division of the NHL is like battling for space with an elephant in a phone booth. It's pretty crowded. The Vancouver Canucks will need a win over the Calgary Flames in Saturday night's game at the Pengrowth Saddledome (CBC, 10 p.m. ET) if they hope to remain first in the packed division. The Canucks then play the Oilers, another division rival, in ...

The Calgary Flames are retiring the number of goaltender Mike Vernon, who led the Flames to their Stanley Cup win of 1989. Vernon, a Calgary native, spent 13 of his 20 NHL seasons with the Flames. He had three shutouts and 16 wins for the Flames in the 1989 post-season. Vernon also played for San Jose, Florida and Detroit, where he won another Stanley Cup in 1997. He was also ...

If Miikka Kiprusoff is the backbone of the Calgary Flames, then the NHL club is standing a little taller these days. The Flames' goaltender has been instrumental in Calgary's five-game winning streak heading into Friday's game against the visiting Detroit Red Wings (Rogers Sportsnet, 9 p.m. ET). A spine needs support and Kiprusoff is getting more of that on-ice from his teammates than he did in the Flames' 3-7-2 start ...

Calgary forward Stephane Yelle was taken off the ice on a stretcher because of an ankle injury Thursday night after falling backward and being pushed into the boards by Bruins defenceman Jason York. ``He went into the boards awkwardly and he jammed up his ankle,'' Flames coach Jim Playfair said. ``He'll fly home with us tonight and we will get it checked out.'' Yelle, injured late in the second period, is in his 11th season in the NHL. ``You ...

A trip home was all the Bruins needed to get back on track. Glen Murray scored two goals and Boston snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night. ``The difference between how we played on the road and how we played tonight is that we weren't scrambling as much,'' forward Brad Boyes said. ``Tonight we were all on the same page.'' The Bruins started the season with five straight road ...

Montreal Canadiens winger Aaron Downey was in hospital Tuesday night with a severe concussion after taking an open ice hit from Calgary Flames defenceman Robyn Regehr. ``He'll stay overnight (at Montreal General Hospital) and we'll see how he feels,'' said head coach Guy Carbonneau. ``It's a pretty bad concussion.'' Downey crossed the red line with his head down and was dropped by a thundering shoulder check from Regehr 3:38 into the Canadiens 5-4 victory at the Bell Centre. He ...

Sheldon Souray and Radek Bonk each scored two goals as the Montreal Canadiens skated to a wild 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night. Souray scored twice on the man advantage and set up another power-play goal by Alex Kovalev as the Canadiens (3-0-2) remained without a loss in regulation time. Matthew Lombardi scored twice while Dion Phaneuf and Chuck Kobasew also scored for the Flames (2-3-1), which lost a second game in a row. Phaneuf ...

The Victoriaville Tigres will retire Matthew Lombardi's jersey on Wednesday night, but the Calgary Flames centre won't be there. With the Flames flying out after a game Tuesday night in Montreal to Boston, where they finish a four-game road trip on Thursday, it would have been ``too tough'' to make a side trip to Victoriaville, a more than two-hour drive east of Montreal. Instead, his father Peter will stand in ...

Russian club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl has filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against the NHL, the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. The lawsuit essentially claims that Andrei Taratukhin of the Flames and Alexei Mikhnov of the Oilers are under contract with Yaroslavl for the 2006-07 season and should not be allowed to play for any other club in the world. It asked the federal court for a temporary injunction ...

Defenceman Craig Rivet was back on the ice Monday with his sore left foot feeling better. The Montreal Canadiens veteran took a shot off the heel in the third period of a shootout loss to Ottawa on Saturday but said he will be in the lineup Tuesday night at the Bell Centre against the Calgary Flames. ``Any time you take a shot like that the first thing in your mind ...

Mats Sundin's 500th career goal, and third of the game, came 50 seconds into overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a thrilling 5-4 win over the Calgary Flames Saturday night. Sundin blasted a slap shot from just inside the blue-line that rocketed past Vezina Trophy winner Miikka Kiprusoff, a short-handed goal by the Leafs captain that had 19,338 fans jumping out of their seats at the Air Canada Centre. The fans stood on their feet ...

Everybody was saying before the NHL season began that lack of offence would be to blame if the defensively diligent Calgary Flames failed to realize their full potential. A lot of people picked them to win the Western Conference. Four games in, lack of scoring is indeed a problem. The Flames produced only five goals in going 2-2. Jarome Iginla has two goals and Alex Tanguay, Stephane Yelle and Marcus ...

Jarome Iginla scored the only goal of the game midway through the third period Thursday night and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all 33 shots he faced to lead the Calgary Flames to a 1-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators. In a battle of two teams starved for offence, Iginla's goal with 8{ minutes remaining in regulation time stood up in an entertaining game played before a crowd of 18,404 at Scotiabank ...

Vesa Toskala made 29 saves, Steve Bernier scored the game winner and San Jose had goals from four different players as the Sharks beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 Monday to remain unbeaten. Coming off a shutout victory Saturday over the New York Islanders with Evgeni Nabokov in net, San Jose coach Ron Wilson went back to opening night goaltender Toskala _ and the move paid off. Toskala's only mistake came ...

Stephane Yelle scored the tying goal and assisted on Marcus Nilson's game winner as the Calgary Flames edged the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 Saturday night, earning a split of their season-opening home-and-home series. Nilson's winner came with 48 seconds left in the second period. From behind the net, Alex Tanguay centred a pass to Yelle, whose shot from the slot was stopped by Edmonton goaltender Dwayne Roloson. Nilson buried the rebound for his first of the season, giving head ...

The best scoring lines in the NHL will have to run the gauntlet of Robyn Regehr and Dion Phaneuf to get to the Calgary Flames's net. Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger may occasionally see ice time together on Anaheim's special teams, Philadelphia has Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje, Toronto boasts Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle, but Regehr and Phaneuf should emerge as one of the most intimidating defensive pairings in ...

Vesa Toskala came within three minutes of his second straight pre-season shutout and Milan Michalek scored two goals to lead the San Jose Sharks past the Calgary Flames 5-1 on Saturday night. Toskala, before giving up a late third-period goal to Andrei Zyuzin, had gone more than 119 minutes without allowing a pre-season goal. He shut out Vancouver on Tuesday and seems to have secured the starting goalie role in ...