The chants Curtis Joseph has received at the Saddledome in the past have been very different than the cries of 'Cujo' that rained down upon him last night.
"It's usually slow and drawn out," the Calgary Flames backup goaltender said slowly, drawing out his own words. "With a different tone."
Making his Cowtown debut nearly three months after the veteran was signed to spell starter Miikka Kiprusoff down the stretch, Joseph helped the Flames to a remarkable comeback in a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks to take a 2-1 lead in their opening-round series.
Kiprusoff started, but was pulled 3:33 into the game after allowing three goals on five shots to temporarily quiet the Sea of Red.
In the silence, you could almost hear the flustered Flames goaltender's stick crack as he slammed it against the glass on his way through the bench to the locker-room to cool off.
But Joseph -- whose last playoff win was as a visitor to the 'Dome as a member of the Detroit Red Wings in 2004 -- earned many an ear-bending chant in Kiprusoff's absence in his first home game as a Flame.
Head coach Mike Keenan was ready for the questions about a possible goaltending controversy as a result.
"I knew you'd have a controversy going, so you'll have to wait and see," said Keenan, who will surely go back to his star netminder for Game 4 tomorrow night.
But Joseph deserves credit for his play after coming in cold.
"It would be interesting to see if you had a heart-rate monitor on you how much it jumps," said Joseph of receiving the tap. "We scored four goals, and that's good news."
A powerplay goal in the latter half of the first period started it off. Then another on the man-advantage came midway through the second frame.
Dion Phaneuf tied things 1:18 into the third when his shot was backhanded by Sharks defender Marc-Edouard Vlasic into his own net. Owen Nolan provided the electrifying winner with 3:45 left in regulation to bring about the loudest cheers of the evening.
"It felt great coming back. It doesn't happen too many times in your career, especially in a playoff game," said Joseph, who finished with 22 saves for the personal shutout. "It was nice to see the boys really work hard.
"Maybe (the Sharks) sat back a little bit, I don't know, but we certainly stepped up our game from the opening 10 minutes."
They were working more against the clock than the Sharks, who seemed to fold the minute Cory Sarich rocked their captain bloody along the boards a little more than a dozen minutes into the game.
Sarich brutalized Patrick Marleau and the visitors responded by taking a roughing penalty that helped spark the Flames comeback.
Phaneuf's point shot hit Jarome Iginla's shin and deflected past goaltender Evgeni Nabokov on that man-advantage to get the Flames on the scoreboard after Ryane Clowe, Marleau and Douglas Murray staked the Sharks to a 3-0 lead.
Daymond Langkow swatted one past Nabokov from the goal-mouth in the second period, and Phaneuf's fortunate score at last gave the Flames a clean slate with almost a full period to play.
"On our bench, we were positive. I think a huge play of the game was the big hit by Sarich. It kind of said we weren't going away. We weren't giving up," said Iginla.
