Vernon Makes Up for His Misconduct

Detroit Red Wing goaltender Mike Vernon has been through the playoff wars before and has won his share of battles. He won the biggest battle of all in 1989, when he carried the Calgary Flames to the Stanley Cup, but in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mentality that rules professional sports, he has come to be regarded as a failure for not leading the supremely talented Red Wings to the Cup the past two seasons.

That he may yet carry the Red Wings to victory this season, after he was shunted aside in favor of young Chris Osgood, is a form of justice dispensed only in the Twilight Zone--or in the NHL.

Vernon on Tuesday committed the sin of losing his poise and got a 10-minute misconduct for complaining to referee Bill McCreary about a high-sticking penalty called against him that gave the Ducks a five-on-three power play. The Ducks scored on that advantage and would score twice more, but after Coach Scotty Bowman called him over to the bench and told him to forget the incident, Vernon recovered. That bought time for his teammates to regroup and allowed their superior depth to become decisive, crucial elements in the Red Wings’ rally for a 5-3 victory that left them one game away from the Western Conference finals.

“I thanked these guys after the game for battling back for me,” Vernon said. “The [minor] penalty was uncalled for, and I was just venting. I was expecting [the misconduct]. I thought our guys did a heck of a job to come back.”

Before the game, Duck Coach Ron Wilson praised Vernon’s persistence through some tough years, seasons when the Flames dissembled and the Red Wings lacked the persistence to fight through neutral zone traps or fight the dirty little playoff battles that determine playoff games. The 17,174 fans at the Pond added their own backhanded compliment by chanting “Ver-non” at him after the Ducks jumped to a 3-1 lead and it appeared he might break.

Not on Tuesday he wouldn’t.

“Michael played terrific,” said Red Wing forward Doug Brown, who earned Vernon’s heartfelt gratitude for both serving his 10-minute sentence and scoring the tying goal, at 16:28 of the second period. “He took a penalty and he knew that hurts the team and he bore down and shut the door on them.”

That was no surprise to Wilson. “He’s taken a lot of heat and he hung in there,” Wilson said. “I have no trouble complimenting someone like him. He’s taken a lot of heat in Detroit and I think unfairly, for their failure to win big games, and you can’t say that in this series.

“There’s not a lot of goaltenders out there who have won the Stanley Cup, but there’s a lot of good goaltenders out there. Mike Vernon single-handedly got [the 1989 Flames] through the first round [in a seven-game series against Vancouver that went to overtime in the finale]. After that I’d never question him.”

For Vernon, who is 7-2 in the playoffs with a 1.89 goals-against average, this trip has been unexpected and, for that reason, especially sweet.

“It’s sure a lot different than the first half of the year, when I was getting a little frustrated and I couldn’t do anything about it. It’s just nice,” said Vernon, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. “I didn’t rant and rave. I kept my mouth shut and whatever happened, happened. . . .

“It’s one thing if you play yourself out of a job and another if you don’t play. I didn’t play myself out of a job.”

He has done a good job in the playoffs, even if he put the Red Wings in a precarious position Tuesday. But it was only fair that his teammates rescued him because Vernon had saved them in their six-game, first-round series against St. Louis and has been solid against the Ducks.

“He’s had some tough games. He’s had a little more work this series,” Bowman said. “They’ve had more chances than St. Louis did.”

Said Vernon: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a long shot or a golden opportunity. You just try to get yourself in good position to stop the puck. There are no real secrets. And it doesn’t matter what you stop it with, your pad or the post. It’s a simple game, really. Everybody complicates it.”

It gets especially complicated this time of year. “There is pressure on Detroit and you can break a young goaltender quickly, i.e. Montreal,” Wilson said, referring to the Canadiens’ switch from Jocelyn Thibault to Jose Theodore during their first-round loss to New Jersey. “Chris Osgood is going to be a great goaltender, but you need old warhorses when the pressure is dialed up, like it is now.”

The warhorse is having an impressive ride.