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    Calgary Flames forward Olli Jokinen scores the winning goal against Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere (L) during the overtime shoot-out of their NHL hockey game in Toronto.

Photograph by: Mike Cassese, Reuters

TORONTO — The jubilation — and relief — on the face of Matt Stajan told the story.

The Calgary Flames centre, keyed up about his first game in Toronto as a member of the visiting team, scored a goal in a 2-1 shootout win Saturday night over the Maple Leafs.

In the 56 games prior to Saturday’s tilt, Stajan had scored just two goals, so there was no reason to expect the faltering forward to tally in his hometown.

“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Stajan said. “It felt really good. To say it was just another goal, another win . . . that would be lying for sure.”

His goal wasn’t a beauty, coming off a wild goalmouth scramble when the former Leaf swatted the puck out of the air and past goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Another former Leaf, Niklas Hagman, drew the first assist on the goal that broke a scoreless game open with 6:53 to go in the third period.

So, how did it feel?

“Definitely excitement,” said Stajan, who joined the Flames as part of the multi-player trade that sent defenceman Dion Phaneuf to Toronto. “Definitely relief. It’s been a tough year.”

A lot of good things happened for the Flames on Saturday. For example:

• They won back-to-back games on the road for the first time all season.

• They clawed back to .500 with a record of 20-20-5 to put them six points out of a playoff spot (although five teams stand in their way of eighth place in the Western Conference.

• Three players scored in the shootout (Alex Tanguay, Ales Kotalik and Olli Jokinen).

• They sacrificed their bodies to the tune of 22 blocked shots compared to 12 for Toronto.

Most importantly, their meal-ticket goaltender, Miikka Kiprusoff, shook off whatever was ailing him. The beleaguered netminder stopped 33 shots through 65 minutes and denied two of four Leafs in the shootout.

Not at all bad for a guy pulled Monday night for surrendering four goals on eight shots.

“In 97 per cent of our games, he’s our best player,” Jokinen said. “I know people love to talk about him after he had a couple of bad games. Maybe he didn’t play to the level he wanted to play.

“We have full confidence in him. He’s not just our best player most nights. He’s probably one of the top three players in the whole league.”

Against the Leafs, Kiprusoff made several dazzling saves, including one a glove grab to deny Leaf sniper Phil Kessel with just over two minutes remaining in the third period.

With Calgary clinging to a 1-0 lead, Kotalik took a hooking penalty at 17:48 of the third. Leafs centre Mikhail Grabovski tied the game with 12.4 seconds left after a mad flurry. Kiprusoff made the initial save, but had zero chance on the rebound.

To add to the drama, Toronto winger Nikolai Kulemin took a hooking penalty at 2:12 of overtime, but the Leafs killed it off.

“We should have made them pay on that power-play,” Jokinen said. “It never should have gone into the shootout.

But it did. Tyler Bozak and Colby Armstrong scored for Toronto. Jokinen notched the winner for the Flames on his first shootout attempt of this season.

But the story was Stajan.

“It was good to see him rewarded,” Flames coach Brent Sutter said. “He was right on top of the goalie. We had some whacks at it, and he was able to get a rebound.

“It was obviously a good goal for our hockey team.”

Call it a great goal for a man who seemingly would have struggled to put the puck into a soccer net for much of this season.

“I got 25 or 30 people here,” Stajan said. “I’m going to go shower up and go meet everybody. It’s nice to do this in front of my family and in my hometown.”

Calgary Herald

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Leafs still that crappy team?