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CALGARY -- Nigerian-born Akim Aliu provided the Calgary Flames with a silver lining to an otherwise disappointing season. In his second NHL game, the 22-year-old scored his first two goals as Calgary concluded the regular season with a 5-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. "It was surreal," said Aliu. "Its something you think about your whole life but you can never plan for it, you never know what the feelings are going to be like and when it happens, you dont believe it for the first while to enjoy it." Aliu opened the scoring four minutes into the first period on a fluky bounce. His cross-ice pass intended for Mike Cammalleri caromed sharply off the skate of Anaheims Luca Sbisa and past Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller. "I toe-dragged Lubomir Visnovsky and put it in off the bar," said Aliu, with a smile, when asked what his version of his first NHL goal will be later in life when hes asked about it. Aliu made his NHL debut Thursday night against Vancouver and had an assist in the Flames 3-2 victory. It was the culmination of a long journey which saw Aliu play for eight professional teams over the past four seasons. "Hopefully management liked what they saw and hopefully they give me a long look next year. Thats all I can I really ask for," said Aliu. "Theyve been so great to me that I cant really think too much ahead." Aliu, a big man at six-foot-four and 225 pounds, moved from Nigeria to the Ukraine shortly after he was born. His Nigerian father and Russian mother moved the family to Canada when he was 12 years old. He had never skated. Aliu started off this season at the Winnipeg Jets training camp but that did not work out and he returned home to Toronto. His first game this year eventually came with the Colorado Eagles of the East Coast Hockey League. He was acquired by the Flames organization on Jan. 30 from the Jets in exchange for Flames defensive prospect John Negrin. He had 10 goals and four assists in 40 games with Abbotsford (AHL) before Calgary recalled him on Wednesday to give the pending restricted free agent a two-game look. "It was fun to be a part of it for me, I got to play on his line for two games," said Cammalleri. "Im really happy for him, he played really hard, he played well, all the things we all saw -- skated well, hit hard, made good plays with the puck." Jay Bouwmeester, Anton Babchuk and Lee Stempniak also scored for Calgary (37-29-16). Henrik Karlsson made 23 saves for his first victory since Jan. 21, 2011. He had been 0-6-3 in his previous nine decisions. Since going to the Stanley Cup final in 2004, the seven seasons since the NHL lockout havent been as rewarding Calgary. Four first-round playoff losses have been followed by three seasons of not making the post-season. Bobby Ryans 30th and 31st goals of the season supplied all the offence for Anaheim (34-36-12). The Ducks finish the campaign with their worst record since 2003-04. After goals 25 seconds apart from Bouwmeester and Babchuk in the final minute of the second put the Flames ahead by two goals, Aliu made it 4-1 on his second at 7:24 of the third when Bouwmeesters shot deflected in off Alius ankle. The announcement of the goal sparked shouts of "Aloooooo" from the invigorated sell-out Scotiabank Saddledome crowd of 19,289. Both teams could ice drastically different rosters next season. Unrestricted free agents on the Flames include forwards Olli Jokinen, Stempniak, David Moss and Tom Kostopoulos, along with veteran defencemen Cory Sarich and Scott Hannan. Head coach Brent Sutters three-year contract also expires this summer. There is speculation about whether or not hell be back having failed to get Calgary to the post-season during his stint, although this year was an especially challenging one injury-wise with the Flames missing 389 man games to injury. Jarome Iginla will be another hot conversation topic. The Flames captain and all-time leading scorer has a no-trade clause in his contract but theres talk the team may ask him to wave it. "I honestly dont know what it holds," said Iginla, when asked about his future. "I do know that there will be a lot of questions and were all going to be looked at it and thats part of it and we all should be being out for three years." Calgary is the 11th oldest team in the NHL and many expect them to get younger. "Do I want to go on, on a team if were going to fully rebuild? I dont know that I do," said Iginla. "I think Calgary has a very good organization. I think they treat us all well as players and I do think that theres a lot of good things going. When I see some of the young guys this year, its been a big positive." The eight Ducks potentially playing their last game for Anaheim included UFAs Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Jason Blake and Niklas Hagman. Selanne, 41, is the most intriguing situation, as he led the Ducks in scoring this season with 26 goals and 40 assists. "It was tough to finish the season like we did, not making the playoffs is very disappointing.," said Selanne. "But I still had a great time. Every day I have a big smile on my face to come to the rink so thats something thats most important for me." Selannes ranks 12th on the all-time list for goals scored with 663, one behind Jaromir Jagr of the Philadelphia Flyers. "I dont know if you always have to play as long as you can. You know that its going to end some year and my dream, always, is that I could retire on my own terms and healthy and still enjoy the game and life after hockey," said Selanne. "Obviously, I have to talk with my family too about the situation. The boys get older and its hard to be away from home for such a long time all the time. Obviously, Im very thankful that Ive been able to play for so many years." Notes: Anaheim goes 27-23-8 under the guidance of coach Bruce Boudreau, who was hired Nov. 30... Putting Calgarys 16 overtime losses in perspective, only two teams have had more, ever -- this seasons Florida Panthers (18) and the 08-09 Tampa Bay Lightning (18)... Flames prospect Sven Baertschi has 15 points (3 goals, 12 assists) in his first five Western Hockey League playoff games. He had three goals in five games with the Flames as an emergency recall in March. MLB . He will head to New York for the presentation of college footballs most famous player of the year award having relinquished front-runner status to another quarterback -- one known as RG3. NBA . -- With Portland trailing Utah to start the fourth quarter, Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard did what an All-Star is supposed to do. http://www.ourjerseysonline.com/. The Flames announced the injury on Wednesday. Butler was hurt when he crashed into his own net while trying to break up a two-on-one rush by the Oilers. He fell awkwardly on his leg and had to be helped off the ice. NFL .com) - Three-time reigning and four-time overall champion Novak Djokovic was a predictable third-round winner Friday at the dangerously hot Australian Open.ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The game wasnt even 20 seconds old and Minnesota Duluth was already down 1-0 to Notre Dame. Its been that way for the Bulldogs all season long, so why change in the semifinals of the Frozen Four? J.T. Brown had a goal and an assist and Minnesota Duluth hung on through a tense third period to beat Notre Dame 4-3 on Thursday and advance to its second national title game in school history. "Sometimes theyre better when their backs are against the wall," coach Scott Sandelin said. "Theyve been that way all year long." Calgarys Mike Connolly, Jack Connolly and Kyle Schmidt also scored and the Bulldogs (25-10-6) survived being outshot 15-2 in the third period to get past Notre Dame (25-14-5). Ken Reiter overcame a shaky start to make 31 saves. UMD will face Michigan in the championship game Saturday night. The Wolverines beat North Dakota 2-0. "Its an unbelievable feeling," Jack Connolly said. "Were looking to make history in our program. This is something thats never been done, and I couldnt be more proud of the guys and our coaching staff. Weve worked hard all year, and this is our ultimate goal is to get to this game on Saturday." Jeff Costello, T.J. Tynan and Calle Ridderwall scored for the Fighting Irish, with Ridderwall connecting short-handed early in the third period to cut Duluths lead to 4-3. But the Irish couldnt come up with the tying goal in a furious final two minutes and went 0-for-5 on the power play. "That game was dictated by one thing," Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said. "Special teams." Duluth went 3-for-6 on the power play and held the Irish without a shot on goal for their final three power plays of the night. Justin Faulk and Justin Fontaine of Bonnyville, Alta., each had three assists for slick-passing UMD, which lost a four-overtime thriller to Bowling Green in the 1984 final. Now the Bulldogs will look to join the UMD football team as national champions. The Bulldogs took their second Division II football title in three years last fall. "You couldnt ask for a better location for it," Faulk said of Xcel Energy Center, located about 2 1/2 hours south of Duluths campus and in the backyard of several Bullldogs players who grew up in the Twin Cities.dddddddddddd The two semifinals were a stark contrast in tradition, with the Irish and Bulldogs both in search of their first national titles while Michigan and North Dakota have combined for 16. Neither Notre Dame nor UMD won conference championships or tournaments, but got into the 16-team field with at-large bids. Perhaps the gravity of the occasion was a little too much for the two goalies in the early going. The game got off to a blistering start, with both goaltenders giving up fairly soft goals. Notre Dame was on the board in less than 20 seconds when Costello easily beat Reiter on the short side. The Bulldogs got back in the game with superior puck movement on the power play, with Brown sweeping a pass from Faulk past Mike Johnson, who made 17 saves. Tynan scored when the puck took a wicked bounce off the boards behind Reiter, but UMD scored the final two goals of the period -- one by Schmidt and another by Mike Connolly on the power play -- to take a 3-2 lead into the first break. Reiter appeared to settle down a bit as the game went on, stopping Tynan on a breakaway at the end of the first period and then benefiting from smothering defence in the second. The Bulldogs held Notre Dame to just four shots in the second period, including none on two power plays to keep the heat off their streaky goalie. The bigger, younger Irish were having difficulty keeping the smaller, quicker Bulldogs in front of them, and they took six penalties while chasing them around the ice. Jack Connolly scored UMDs third power-play goal of the game on a beautiful cross-ice feed from Brown to make it 4-2. "The second period killed us," Tynan said. Ridderwalls short-handed goal just over two minutes into the final period gave Notre Dame new life, and the Irish peppered Reiter for the rest of the game, but only at even strength. They had another power play with under nine minutes to play, but once again failed to register a shot. They used six skaters for the final minute, but Reiter came up with just enough to keep the puck out of the net. "We had the momentum the whole period," Cadderwall said. "We just couldnt get the puck through." ' ' '
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