page_title: 2011 Heritage Classic
section_title: Game play
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 Heritage Classic / Game play
caption_attribution_description: English: The Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames face off to begin the third period of the 2011 Heritage Classic at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
context_page_description: The 2011 Heritage Classic was a regular season outdoor National Hockey League game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. The game was played at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on February 20, 2011. The Flames defeated the Canadiens by a score of 4–0 before a crowd of 41,022 spectators. It was just the second time in six NHL outdoor games that the home team won.
  It was the second Heritage Classic game, held seven seasons after the original. It was also the first time the NHL held two outdoor games in one season, as it followed the 2011 NHL Winter Classic in Pittsburgh. In spite of criticism that playing two such games in a season would lessen the spectacle, the Heritage Classic eclipsed all previous NHL outdoor games in sponsorship. The game's title sponsor was Tim Hortons.
  Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff was named the game's first star after making 39 saves to record the first shutout in an NHL outdoor game. His teammates Rene Bourque and Alex Tanguay were the second and third stars respectively.
context_section_description: The cold weather and ice conditions reduced the game to a slower speed than usual, with little physical play.  Both teams struggled to deal with bouncing pucks, while arena staff were called out to fix patches of the ice on numerous occasions. Flames' defenceman Steve Staios stated that Calgary's strategy revolved around "keeping it simple and trying to play the game in straight lines". Montreal's James Wisniewski admitted after the game that the Canadiens struggled to adapt to the conditions.
  The Flames dominated the first period of play, outshooting Montreal 19–8.  Canadiens' goaltender Carey Price made several difficult saves early in the game, stopping a Rene Bourque one-timer from the top of the crease followed immediately by a save on Alex Tanguay, who tried to stuff the rebound into the net. Calgary was given an early two-man advantage after P. K. Subban and Hal Gill both took tripping penalties in the seventh minute of play.  The Flames capitalized on the power play, as Tanguay slid a pass in front of the Montreal net that was deflected in by Bourque to give Calgary a 1–0 advantage.
  The score remained unchanged until the second period. Montreal held the advantage in play for much of the frame, taking 21 shots on Miikka Kiprusoff. They earned their only power play opportunity of the game midway through the frame when Jay Bouwmeester was penalized for interference. The Flames had the better chances despite being shorthanded; Curtis Glencross was unable to deflect a pass into the net while rushing towards the Montreal goal, but fought to retrieve the puck and sent it back out front of the net, where Anton Babchuk snapped it behind Price to extend Calgary's lead to 2–0. Bourque made the score 3–0 with five minutes left in the period when he cut in front of Price from the left side of the ice and put the puck in before being sent airborne over the fallen goaltender's pads. The goal was the 100th of Bourque's career.
  The third period was relatively even.  Montreal outshot Calgary 10–7 for the period, and 39–37 for the game. Roman Hamrlik sent the Flames to their fourth power play at 8:58 of the period, and the Flames capitalized a minute later when Jarome Iginla sent a pass over a sprawling Montreal defender to Tanguay, who was standing on top of the crease and tapped the puck into the net. Kiprusoff held Montreal off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game to record his fourth shutout of the season, and the first in the NHL's outdoor history. With the win, the Flames became only the second home team to win an NHL outdoor game, following the Boston Bruins, who won the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park.
caption: The teams line up to begin the third period.
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