Goalie Joni Ortio (No 37) of the Calgary Flames stops Henrik Sedin (No 33) of the Vancouver Canucks in close as TJ Brodie (No 7) of the Calgary Flames helps defend on the play during the third period in NHL action in Vancouver. (AFP)
Agencies/Vancouver
Joni Ortio made 36 saves for his first NHL shutout, leading the Calgary Flames past the Vancouver Canucks 1-0 on Saturday night.
Mikael Backlund scored in the first period for Calgary and Ortio made it stand in his first start of the season to help the Flames snap a three-game losing streak.
“You just have to win those battles down low, I guess,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins told The Vancouver Sun. “Some pucks are sitting around and you just have to find a way to get them. I think we hit four or five posts and if one those goes in, it certainly helps.
“I thought tonight the effort was there. It’s a tough league and sometimes you play well, but you don’t win. That was the case tonight.”
Ortio, a 23-year-old Finn, was recalled from the American Hockey League Adirondack Flames last week after Karri Ramo went down with an upper-body injury; Ortio played a mere nine NHL games before Saturday. The Flames came in having lost nine straight against Vancouver (0-6-3), and hadn’t beaten the Canucks since a 4-2 victory on March 3, 2013, in Calgary.
Eddie Lack stopped 22 shots for Vancouver, which has dropped two straight after going 5-1-1 in its previous seven games.
Lack, who came in with a 3-0-0 career record against Calgary, got the start ahead of No. 1 goalie Ryan Miller, who wasn’t feeling well but sat on Vancouver’s bench as the backup.
Still trailing 1-0 after giving up a goal early in the first and in possession of a 28-14 shot edge through two periods, the Canucks came out hard in the third, but Ortio was there when he had to be after Vancouver hit three posts in the game’s first 40 minutes.
