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 After seeing center Sean Monahan snap his scoring drought with
authority by netting a pair of goals in the 5-0 win over the
Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, Colborne said to expect more
to follow.
"If I was a fantasy hockey player, I'd have him in the line-up for
the next little while, Colborne said. "He's going to get hot."
Unless they drastically change, the winless Hurricanes will help a
lot of teams and players find their mojo.
Monahan and fellow centers Matt Stajan and Lance Bouma all took
advantage of the struggling club at the Scotiabank Saddledome to
light the lamp for the first time this season.
"Obviously it's been quite a few games now," said Monahan, who had a
22-goal rookie campaign in 2013-14. "I want to contribute to help
get wins and I think that was a big relief for me tonight.
"It's always a relief putting the puck in the net but once one goes
in, I think your game changes. I guess you're a little more
confident in your game. That was a big help for me."
Everybody in the building noticed it, especially Flames coach Bob
Hartley, whose team now sports a 5-3-1 record.
 "I saw a happy young man," Hartley said of Monahan. "He could have
had a hat trick. Late in the game he had a great shot go over the
net. (Jiri Hudler, Monahan and Colborne), that's the line I saw last
year. That's the kind of performance we need from them."
They weren't alone.
"I had challenged the players before the game we would like to win
the three periods," Hartley said. "We divided the game in three
smaller games of 20 minutes. They did it and they did it in a great
fashion. I thought we played a very solid game. It's almost a
perfect game out there."
Especially perfect for those needing to bust a slump.
"It's always nice to get the first one and get the monkey off my
back," Bouma said. "It feels good. A lot of us in here got our first
tonight. It was a good group effort.
"We did a lot of great things and that created our offense. If we do
that most nights we're going to have success."
Defenseman Dennis Wideman opened the scoring late in the first
period, giving him goals in three consecutive games and four this
season, equaling last season's total.
The capper for the Flames was goalie Jonas Hiller recording his
first shutout of the season, a 16-save effort.
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"I think you always have a good chance if you just give up 15 or 16
shots," Hiller said. "We played really well. We spent most of the
time in their zone. It was definitely not as tiring as other games
I've played this year.
"You could see out there that everybody was willing to compete, to
sacrifice even blocking shots to the end. Even in the third when we
were up 5-0 guys were still working hard and blocking shots. That's
a nice feeling also for the future."
Not so nice was the feeling in the Carolina room. Not only is coach
Bill Peters' team winless (0-4-2), but the performance was
unsettling.
"Real concerned to be honest with you," Peter said. "Real concerned
we didn't stick with it. It looked like we didn't believe."
The Hurricanes must know they'll eventually win, but a key will be
to somehow stay positive.
"We've got to flip the page as fast as possible," said center Riley
Nash. "It's tough to do right now because we haven't gotten any
results, but we really haven't deserved any in the last couple of
games. It should help if we realize that."
NOTES: For the first time this season, the Flames skated with the
exact same lineup they had the previous outing. ... Carolina C Brody
Sutter, the ninth member of the famous hockey family, played his
second NHL game and first in the city he grew up in. He is the son
of Duane Sutter, who won four Stanley Cup titles with the New York
Islanders in the 1980s. ... Hurricanes D Ryan Murphy was back to his
familiar point on the blueline after skating as a forward the
previous outing. ... Carolina also saw the return of D John-Michael
Liles from injury, which made D Jay Harrison and D Brett Bellmore
healthy scratches. ... In an effort to ignite some scoring, the
Flames moved C Matt Stajan to a line with LW Curtis Glencross and
also put C Joe Colborne to a wing with C Sean Monahan. It worked.
Colborne now has eight points, all assists.
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