Forever Forum

Calgary Flames v Montreal Canadiens, Ferbuary 17, 1996

Montreal Forums, SRO

My first trip to Canada. Never do that in a kids dad's LTD loaded up with 4 obnoxious friends and expect to make it past the border guards without an anal probe. Our only saving grace was we held off buying American crap beer, so we had nothing to find in the search.

Our first stop after being granted permission to enter was an old corner country store in the first sign of civilization after entering Quebec. The place had 2 or 3 aisles of groceries with a beer cooler in the back. I was intent on making a beeline to the cooler but was distracted by a knockout girl at the register who greeted us in French. It was a thing of beauty.....the beer cooler that is.

We were still a ways from Montreal.

The first night we bar hopped then each bought a 12 pack of different beers for the next day. We placed them on the 10th floor balcony. When morning arrived and it was time for breakfast, we noticed all the beers were frozen except the Molson XXX.

We took the Metro to the Forum. It was not a historic looking building from the outside having been through 2 renovations in it's lifetime. This was the 4th to the last game to be played at the Forum. Montreal did it right. They closed a building in mid season so a proper goodbye could be planned.

Boston closed the Garden the year prior. Their last game was a playoff loss. The Flyers closed out the Spectrum with a playoff loss. I attended the "last" regular season game at the Spectrum. They tried to make it a festive occassion with ceremonies, but everyone knew it was not the real "last" game, with playoffs about to start.

We entered the Forum bar from the street hours before faceoff. We were greeted at our table by Yvon Lambert, a former Hab who scored one of the most memorible goals in Forum history. He managed the restaurant/bar.

Once inside we walked the concourse, checked the place out then muscled our way to the only standing room only place left to stand. Dead center behind one of the nets, up with the banners on a catwalk. I think 17,958 people had better seats (stand) then me this night. But I did not care, I was in the soon to be gone Montreal Forum.

The PA announcer made his announcements in English and in French. The national anthem was only the Canadian National Anthem being both teams were Canadian. We weren't far removed from the Patrick Roy controversy. He was now in Colorado. A new guy by the name of Jocelyn Thibault was in the nets tonight.

Valeri Bure scored two goals and Vincent Damphousse had three assists to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Jocelyn Thibault stopped 36 shots to raise his record to 16-10-3 as the Canadiens improved to 3-1-1 in their last five games.

Theo Fleury scored Calgary's lone goal as the Flames dropped to 1-4-1 in their last six games.

Bure opened the scoring with his 15th goal, 5:21 into the game. Bure flipped a rebound of Popovic's shot over the right pad of Trevor Kidd. Pierre Turgeon's 28th goal, a power-play marker gave Montreal a 2-0 advantage with 9:12 left in the second. Turgeon snapped a wrist shot by Kidd's glove side from the top of the crease.

"We played well for sixty minutes," Bure said. "I'm always ready to come and play the game every night. I go to the net and I wait for the puck. I work hard. I've changed my game and improved it in the last month. I ask myself why I've imporved, but I can not figure it out. I give 100 per cent which satisfies me and I never get down on myself."

Fleury's goal cut the deficit to 2-1 just under 10 minutes into the second. Calgary outshot Montreal, 37-33, including, 21-5, in the final period.

"Give Montreal the two points, they deserved them tonight," Calgary coach Pierre Page said. "We started slowly, but we got back in the game in the second period. With 30 minutes to go, we were only losing 2-1, but Montreal got another power play goal and broke it open. We've been playing well on the road this season, but it just wasn't there tonight. It's our first bad game in a long time. We don't go out looking for penalties or fights, but we have to get ready for the playoffs by playing hard and tough.'

Montreal regained its two goal advantage on Mark Recchi's 16th goal, also a power-play tally, with 2:45 left in the second. Recchi grabbed a rebound of Damphousse's shot to the left of the Calgary and stuffed the puck between Kidd's pads and the post.

"I hope I can keep it up," said Damaphousse, who has eight points in his last five games. "I'm happy with the way I'm playing. Calgary is a tough team, but we took control right at the start of this game. In the third period, Calgary tried to rough it up, but we showed them that we have at least six guys that can rough it up. We are a lot tougher this year than we were last year, that's why we're a .500 team on the road this year."

Bure's second goal of the game gave the Canadiens a 4-1 cushion with 76 seconds left in the second. Bure broke away at the blue lune, skated down the right wing and beat Kidd, who was screened by Calgary defenseman, Trent Yawney.

Scott Fraser's 1st N-H-L goal closed the scoring, 3:57 into the third. Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois collided with Calgary center German Titov behind the Montreal goal in the second period and left the game with a bruised lower back. Montreal left wing Brian Savage suffered a hip pointer in the first period and also did not return.