MIAMI -- They love to rub it into your face here.
 The large weather sign behind the home net is so true it hurts.
 South Florida. Beautiful 84F.
 Calgary. Freezing 32F.
 They should add another line.
 Calgary Flames goalie Rick Tabaracci -- absolutely scorching.
 Tabby outclawed the Panthers last night with his third straight highlight reel performance in leading the Flames to a hardfought 2-1 win.
 Finally, Calgary wins. On the road, too!
 After 12 road games and nine in a row without a win, the Flames have flickered back to life.
 But only because of Tabaracci.
 Called Shabby Tabby by this writer just a few weeks ago, Tabaracci has taken his game to a higher level.
 Behind a group of young defencemen and forwards who committed turnover after turnover last night, Tabaracci single-handedly stole this victory.
 "Obviously, we're happy to come out with a win, but we only came out strong in the second half of the game," said Tabaracci.
 "This team needs points, period -- so we don't worry about streaks.
 "We're not happy with our start, obviously, but we're close enough to the race that a few more wins and we're back in it."
 Coach Brian Sutter lauded Tabaracci.
 "Early in the year, he wasn't as good as he should have been," he said.
 "In the last three or four games, he's been pretty sharp. That's what you need. You gotta have good goaltending to win."
 The game turned in the second period when Jim Dowd capitalized on an aggressive play by Theo Fleury to score the game's first goal.
 On the play, Dowd fired a close-in shot that Panthers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck tried to cover up, but Fleury stormed in and slid the puck loose and Dowd slid it into the open net.
 "I covered up the puck, but didn't get a whistle," said Vanbiesbrouck.
 Until then, it was a game dominated by the Panthers, who out-muscled and outhustled the Flames.
 Florida's big lineup simply manhandled the Flames, who could have used a big hitter and good skater like Ed Ward, who instead sat in the press box.
 It was the first time the Flames have won a game this season in which they've scored the first goal.
 In seven previous such games, they had lost five and tied two.
 But in this game, the Flames also scored the second goal and won for the first time this season a game they've led after two.
 Defenceman Tommy Albelin fired a perfect slapshot just inside the far post past Vanbiesbrouck early in the third period.
 "I was just trying to get it on net," said Albelin of his first goal this season.
 "I scored four goals last year and we didn't win one of the games I scored in."
 Albelin turned to Greek mythology, the tale of Icarus, to explain how this team has been unable to win.
 "We tied some games before and we tend to get too high and fly too close to the sun and the wings melt and we fall down in the ocean," he explained.
 "We have to try and keep it on an even keel and fly between the sun and ocean."
 Crash and burn has been the Flames.
 It was Tabaracci's first win since Oct. 17, when he allowed goals on Colorado's first three shots before the Flames stormed back to win.
 Calgary continued a bad habit of taking stupid penalties when Mike Peluso drew a minor with about four minutes left in the game when he dropped his gloves trying to fight Dave Nemirovsky.
 Stupid.
 Former Flame Dave Gagner capitalized on the powerplay with a partially fanned shot that fooled Tabaracci.
 It got the Panthers back in the game and allowed them to pull the goalie for an extra attacker in the final minute.
 Scott Mellanby had a glorious chance but fired just wide in the final seconds.
 "I can't be doing that," said Peluso, who had a discussion with GM Al Coates after the game. "I've been in the league long enough to know better than to do that."
 And as for that obnoxious weather sign.
 The Flames responded with some pretty hot numbers of their own.
 Calgary 2. Florida 1.

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