|
|
Jamie McLennan credited his Calgary teammates for making his shutout an easy one.
McLennan made 19 saves to extend his shutout streak to over 97 minutes and Blair Betts scored midway through the second period as the Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers 1-0 Tuesday night.
``Shutouts are a luxury and a product of the whole team, they really are,'' McLennan said. ``Tonight wasn't a situation where I stopped 50 and we won 1-0, it was a situation where there were 19 shots and a couple good chances but we limited the chances and played really solid as a team.''
McLennan made his first start of the season in place of Roman Turek, who was still feeling the effects after being accidentally kneed in the head by San Jose's Alyn McCauley on Saturday. NFL Tickets
McLennan stopped all nine shots he faced in 37 minutes after relieving Turek on Saturday and picked up right where he left off. The shutout was his first since March 21, 2001, when he blanked Nashville while with Minnesota.
The Oilers managed
just 10 shots through the first 40 minutes but they increased the pressure on
McLennan in the third period.
``The last five minutes, you're just trying to hang on because you know if they
get one, bottom line, it's a different game,'' McLennan said.
After a sharp pad stop early in the period off a hard one-timer from Ethan Moreau, McLennan held his ground at the near post to keep the puck out as Oilers winger Georges Laraque skated in front and tried to jam the puck in.
Betts scored at 10:06 with one second left on a Flames power play.
Defenseman Andrew Ference slid a short pass to the rookie cutting across the high slot and his wrist shot through a crowd in front trickled in off the pad of Tommy Salo. NFL Tickets
Edmonton was shut out for the second straight game, the first time that's happened since losses to Montreal and Winnipeg on Nov. 18 and Nov. 23, 1991. The Oilers were shut out only four times last season.
``It's a concern, obviously,'' Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. ``It's pretty plain that you have to score goals to win games and it's disappointing that out of the last six periods, offensively we've had maybe one decent period.''
The Flames are 2-1 despite no production from their top line. Neither Jarome Iginla, Craig Conroy or Dean McAmmond have registered a point yet.
Calgary's Stephane Yelle sustained a head injury in the first period in a collision along the boards with Edmonton defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron and didn't return.
Chris Clark and Iginla each hit the goalpost in the first period.