HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: FLAMES' VERSION OF A BLOWOUT, SENATORS SETBACK

The stuff you may have missed while have a, uh, very fulfilling Friday night... try 10 hours' sleep.

Flames 4 Red Wings 1: Remember, for Calgary, 4-1 is like 10-1 for a good offensive team, so they just blew out a team that had won nine straight. When the likes of Kristian Huselius (pictured) and Matthew Lombardi are contributing, Calgary has just enough scoring punch to be dangerous.

Devils 3 Senators 2: One of us was at work with the game on; when Chris Neil got the Sens on the board early in the third to cut into Jersey's three-goal lead, someone wisecracked, "Here comes the comeback; they'll lose only 3-2." Sure enough, they did. Ottawa had only 17 shots on the night and drew just two power plays, but the positive for them is they're right back at it tonight against the Sabres.

Canucks 4 Blues 2: Geez, Vancouver, a gift-wrapped slump-buster -- a nicked-up, last-place team -- and still it was a one-goal game with two minutes left. Between Markus Naslund and both the Sedin twins being in serious scoring droughts, the Canucks are all Swede and no finish these days. They outshot St. Louis 44-21.

Sabres 4 Penguins 2: Maxim Afinogenov was cleared to return and had a hand in two early goals as it was never in doubt for Buffalo, who's in Ottawa tonight.

Stars 5 Thrashers 3: Ouch for Atlanta. Patrick Stefan had three points in his first game against his old team.

Hurricanes 4 Capitals 1: Erik Cole, the former Gananoque Islander, had a four-point night, and Rod Brind'Amour continued his streak of recording a point in every Carolina win.

Lightning 3 Islanders 2 (shootout): Remember, the Islanders are not so much a hockey team anymore as a Kurt Vonnegut novel (or Paul Quarrington, if you're Canadian), so it's not totally unexpected that 13 guys in a row missed in the shootout before Dmitry Afanasenkov won it for the Bolts.

Avs 3 Blue Jackets nada: Colorado's Peter Budaj became the fifth goalie already this year to blank Columbus, who is far and away the lowest-scoring team in the league. Fortunately for the Blue Jackets, there's another sports event in Columbus this weekend to take attention away from hockey -- and yes, I realize it's in poor taste to add, "And Bo Schembechler has already kicked off for Michigan."

Blackhawks 4 Ducks 3 (shootout): The mojo Anaheim had during that long unbeaten streak has worn off; 10 straight power plays and they contrived to lose to the Blackhawks (and right after losing to Philly at home). The Blackhawks just hung in, and got two points thanks largely to Tuomu Ruutu (tying goal and shootout winner) and Nikolai Khabulin (42 saves).

HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN

The Kingston Frontenacs are playing now like they were supposed to -- last night's 7-2 win in Sarnia gave them a 4-0-0-1 record in their past five games. Bobby Nyholm and Matt Kang each scored twice for Kingston, who concludes a three games in three nights trip in Plymouth tonight. Win, and they're back to the .500 mark.

Belleville Bulls 4 Ottawa 67's 3: Yes, we totally would have been at this one if the work schedule had permitted. The Bulls (Kingston's rival) eked out the kind of win that first-place teams tend to eke out -- they were outshot in the first period, yet didn't fall behind, thanks to Kevin Lalande, then later on were able to come from two goals down in the third to beat a young 67's bunch.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.