Bourque hat trick leads Flames by Blue Jackets
Rene Bourque scored three goals and added an assist and Henrik Karlsson stopped 20 shots in his NHL debut to lead the Calgary Flames past the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-2 on Friday night.
Niklas Hagman, Ian White and Alex Tanguay also scored for the Flames. Jarome Iginla had three assists and Olli Jokinen, Matt Stajan and Robyn Regehr each added two assists.
It was Bourque's second career hat trick. The four points also tied a career best.
Derek Dorsett and Jan Hejda had goals for Columbus, beaten badly for the second time in games at Nationwide Arena. Two nights after drawing a franchise-worst crowd of 9,802, the Blue Jackets drew 10,784.
With the Flames leading 2-1, Bourque scored in the final minute of the first period and then added a short-handed goal in the second period for a 4-1 advantage.
Karlsson, who has spent most of his professional career playing in his native Sweden, was acquired by the Flames from San Jose during the offseason for a sixth-round pick. Filling in for starter Miikka Kiprusoff, Karlsson played better as the game went along and made several outstanding saves in the third period.
The Flames played Thursday night, losing at Detroit 4-2, and were winding up a three-game road swing. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets were coming off a 3-1 win over Anaheim, also at home, on Wednesday night.
Yet Calgary took control early and dominated throughout.
After the Blue Jackets took two of the first three shots — almost scoring on point-blank volleys by Rick Nash and Antoine Vermette — the Flames took the next eight shots while grabbing a 2-0 lead.
As a power play was ending, Columbus goalie Steve Mason gave up a big rebound on a shot by Bourque and Hagman collected it, deked, skated in and scored his third of the season.
White then made it 2-0 shortly after rookie Kyle Wilson's second early penalty in his Blue Jackets debut. Stajan's pass back to the point set up White's one-timer.
Columbus cut it to 2-1 when Dorsett followed up a rebound of Rostislav Klesla's blast from the left wing.
The Blue Jackets came close to tying it in the final seconds of their first power play when Marc Methot's shot from the left point clanged off the far post. The Flames quickly cleared it, with Methot back on Jokinen. With Methot shadowing him, Jokinen dropped a pass to the trailing Bourque whose hard shot eluded Mason to make it 3-1.
Boos rained down on the Blue Jackets as they went to the dressing room.
It got worse.
Columbus had a man advantage but had difficulty even getting the puck through the neutral zone when Bourque scored on a short-handed one-timer off a nifty set-up pass from Mikael Backlund.
Bourque picked up his third goal in the final seconds, rocketing a shot past Mason.
In two power plays over the first two periods, Columbus had no shots — and gave up a goal.
