Bergeron, Nordiques were on wrong end of NHL record

Michel Bergeron's cell phone rang late Wednesday morning on the fairway of the eighth hole of Quail Ridge Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Against his better judgment, Bergeron, the former NHL coach, answered the call and after a 10-minute talk said he felt shaky and believed a round of 150 would improve his day.

The Nashville Predators wrote a new page in their record book by scoring two shorthanded goals in a 34-second span, by forwards Austin Watson and Viktor Arvidsson, in their 3-1 win against the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.
Impressive, yes. But the Predators fell 30 seconds short of the NHL record of two shorthanded goals scored four seconds apart by the Calgary Flames in their wild come-from-behind 8-8 tie against Bergeron's Quebec Nordiques on Oct. 17, 1989.

Figuratively, at least, the roof of Quebec's Le Colisee caved in on the home team, with the Flames rallying for five goals in the final 6:33 of regulation time to tie the score. Perhaps fittingly, five minutes of overtime didn't decide a winner.
The Flames' comeback was highlighted by shorthanded goals by center Doug Gilmour and forward Paul Ranheim at 19:45 and 19:49 of the third period, with Calgary goalie Mike Vernon pulled for an extra skater.
"I know, I know," Bergeron, the coach of the Nordiques from 1980-87 and in 1989-90, said with a laugh from the fairway, the gory details of a game he remembers well needlessly related to him. "I should have replaced my goalie, I guess."
That shell-shocked goalie was 19-year-old rookie Stephane Fiset, one of seven goaltenders the Nordiques would use that season.
"The thing I remember the most is that I couldn't stop a beach ball at the end of that game," Fiset said, chuckling at the disaster of nearly 30 years ago. "Seriously, at the end, I couldn't stop anything, I couldn't see the puck at all. They just had to shoot at the net and they had a pretty good chance it would go in. But I learned a lot from that game."
It was Fiset's fourth NHL game and his second at Le Colisee, not a pleasant return to action after having been beaten for five goals in his previous game, a 9-6 loss against the Hartford Whalers on Oct. 8.
Fiset listened as the crime blotter was read to him. Told his 27 stops on 35 Flames shots was a .771 save percentage, he was laughing midway through it.
"There's not much to say, is there?" he said. "The goalies have a job to do, and that's to stop the puck. It wasn't like they were pretty goals, none a 2-on-1 or 2-on-0. I played my part in that loss. Let's just say it wasn't my best game."
Fiset soon would be returned to juniors, Victoriaville of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and his season got a lot better when he represented Canada and won a gold medal at the 1990 World Junior Championship. He would play 390 NHL games and was a member of the 1995-96 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

The Nordiques roared out of the gate to run up a 3-0 lead by 8:29 of the first period, two of their goals coming on the power play. That prompted Flames coach Terry Crisp to pull starting goalie Rick Wamsley and insert Vernon.
The first period ended 4-1, and it was 6-3, Quebec after 40 minutes. The Nordiques went ahead 8-3 at 11:27 of the third period, and then all heck broke loose, something Bergeron said was bigger than any coach or player in the game.
The Flames scored three times in 27 seconds - forward Gary Roberts at 13:27 and 13:43, forward Jim Peplinski then closing the gap to two goals at 13:54. Calgary swarmed the Quebec end in the late stages, leading to the historic final minute starring Gilmour and Ranheim.
With Roberts serving a double minor for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct and Quebec defenseman Joe Cirella off for roughing, Crisp pulled Vernon and the Flames struck twice with the blink of an eye.
First, Gilmour pulled Calgary within one with 15 seconds left in regulation.
"After I scored," Gilmour recalled, "I won the draw, but instead of pulling the puck back, I pushed it forward. Ranheim jumped on it, split the defense and scored.
"You can't do that all the time, but it worked to perfection that time."
Said Crisp after the game: "I guess you can say this is a great comeback. But I guess Michel Bergeron can't say he's happy with his defensive corps. It was a wild and crazy game and we were lucky to get one point."
Said Roberts: "The outcome was good, but not the game."
Quebec's Peter Stastny, who would be traded to the New Jersey Devils on March 6, 1990 for defenseman Craig Wolanin and future considerations (defenseman Randy Velischek), had no idea what to make of the gong show he had just been part of.
\[RELATED: Predators extend Central lead with win against Jets\]
"It's certainly one for the record books," said Stastny, whose two goals and two assists to give him 998 NHL points. "A five-goal comeback like that is unbelievable, especially with two shorthanded goals. I hope I never see another game like that."
The Flames' final two goals scored four seconds apart tied a regular-season NHL record that had been set three previous times. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the most recent to do so, on Dec. 29, 1988 in Quebec.
Pulling a golf club from his bag in Florida, Bergeron said he still feels badly for Fiset.
"If you reach him, tell Steph that," he said. "I didn't say much to him after the game. I was sad for him, I should have changed him, but as a coach, you don't want to hurt your young goalie's confidence. I don't even remember who was our backup was that night (Sergei Mylnikov).
"We were very young and we weren't very good," he said of the Nordiques that went 12-61-7, the worst of 21 NHL teams. "We were out of the playoffs by December. We didn't have too much talent but we were working so hard, I couldn't blame my players."
And then Bergeron laughed again.
"And I'm not proud of holding the record (for the fastest two shorthanded goals allowed), but what can you do?" he said. "That was a real bad game and I'll never forget it. It was a nightmare."