CALGARY

With fireworks exploding, Miikka Kiprusoff and Carey Price led the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens past a stack of hay bales onto the ice for the Heritage Classic.

A tired concept? Perhaps. But don't tell that to the 41,022 hearty souls - some, no doubt fueled by contraband Bailey's slipped into thermoses of hot chocolate - huddled under a deceptively sunny sky in the Alberta foothills.

Frozen fingers and toes aside, the stands turned into a virtual party-zone as Kiprusoff turned aside 39 shots and the Flames blanked the Canadiens 4-0.

Don't think the celebration went unnoticed by the players, who had heaters burning their rear ends on the bench to keep warm.

“That was the best part,” captain Jarome Iginla was saying, his ears still red some 20 minutes after the final horn. “The stands were full. I expected some people to go home. I can't imagine how cold they were.

“They didn't get to warm up.”

The faithful warmed up by cheering the home side, and the Flames obliged with giving them plenty reason to hoot, holler and jump around.

The only down side? The playing conditions. With the temperature hovering around - 10 C, the ice at McMahon Stadium proved troublesome.

And that's putting it in polite terms.

“Brutal,” said Flames forward Curtis Glencross. “It was so cold out there. As soon as we came out for the beginning of the period, it was

bubbly. Heaved a bit.

“But the crew was out there. They did a great job trying to keep it the best they could. That's all we ask for.”

Indeed. NHL ice guru Dan Craig and his crew flooded the surface with a hose for fear the weight of the Zamboni might cause it to crack and

crumble. Men in black shovelled the snow with – wonder of wonder- shovels.

The only thing missing? Mom calling in the boys for supper as the sun dipped below the horizon. When play finally got underway, passes missed their targets. Pretty plays proved impossible. One of the linesmen tripped (literally) over the blueline.

Talk about the perfect setting for Rene Bourque. When on his game, the six-foot-two, 213-pounder is the prototypical power forward with the requisite size and speed at his disposal.

The knock on Bourque is inconsistency. He disappears for long stretches, no doubt causing head coach Brent Sutter pause to issue the

occasional all-points bulletin for his safe return to the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Flames fans need not fret. Bourque served notice Sunday that he's backin business with two goals and 11 (!) shots.

“I think that was the most shots I've had probably in my career,” Bourque said. “I don't know. For some reason, the pucks just kept

coming to me on the left side.

“Trying to keep it simple.”

Keeping it simple proved the perfect game plan on such shoddy ice.

The Flames owned the shot clock in the first period by a commanding margin of 19-8. Only the heroics of Price - wearing a special goalie mask featuring Jacques Plante's eye and lips - kept it close.

Price was clearly chanelling his inner Plante. On the other end, an idle Miikka Kiprusoff bounded to the bench at every TV timeout to warm up.

Only Bourque solved Price, and the goal game with a two-man advantage just about to expire.

The roles reversed in the second. Suddenly awake, the Canadiens fired 21 shots at Kiprusoff. Price only faced 11.

But the Flames converted on their chances.

Anton Babchuk rarely, if ever, played hockey outside as a little boy in Ukraine. No matter. The Calgary defenceman uncorked a booming shot shorthanded at 12:44 to extend the Flames lead to 2-1.

Just over two minutes later, Bourque converted yet again. Somehow coralling a bouncing pass, he danced in all alone, pulled the puck to his backhand and slipped it hrough the five-hole - while losing his balance.

Tanguay, the former Hab, added an insurance marker in the third to seal the win. With the victory, the Flames vault over Los Angeles, Anaheim and Dallas into a tie with the Nashville Predators for fifth spot in the Western Conference.

Judging by the party scene in the McMahon parking lot lames fever is running rampant in a city that was on the verge of giving up on this season and launching a massive rebuild.

“Looked great out there,” defenceman Cory Sarich said of the crowd. “The wave was going on. They were chanting. Looked like everybody was

having a blast.

“Hopefully, they all stayed warm.”

Even if they didn't, the fans went home happy.

vhall@calgaryherald.com