FLAMES ARE PLAYOFF BOUND!
The Calgary Flames beat the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the L. A. Kings, 3- 1 Thursday at the Scotiabank Saddledome, to earn their first trip to the NHL playoffs in six years.
Rewind the clock a year ago, maybe two, and try to find some type of significance to Game No. 81 of the Calgary Flames’ regular season.
Now, go back to the first game of the 2014- 15 campaign, a 4- 2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 8, and try to remember what the hockey world was saying about this group.
Well, Thursday’s very meaningful 3- 1 victory — in Game No. 81 — over the L. A. Kings was their way of saying: “I told you so.”
For the first time since the 200809 season, the Flames are headed to the NHL playoffs.
Without their captain. In Year 2 of a rebuild. With a 21- yearold rookie helping to lead the way.
“I knew, coming in, we had a special group,” Johnny Gaudreau said after the Scotiabank Saddledome exploded at 9: 36 p. m. “It showed ( Thursday).”
“We did a really good job. Throughout the season, we struggled in the first and second periods. We knew if we were going to win this game, we needed to come out flying in the first period. It just shows how good we’ve been throughout the whole season.”
And it showed again in the final five minutes of Thursday’s game.
First, in a nail- biting shift in their own zone when Drew Doughty, Mike Richards, Jordan Nolan and Kyle Clifford were toying around with the Flames fourth line of Brandon Bollig, Josh Jooris and Markus Granlund. Then again when Doughty sent a shot whizzing past Calgary goalie Jonas Hiller with three minutes remaining. Then, when the Kings dominated Calgary’s zone again with a minute left.
But when Jiri Hudler’s emptynet goal sealed the deal with 50 seconds to go, the Saddledome went ballistic.
“It’s great,” said Flames defenceman Dennis Wideman. “I think, all the way through the year until probably right now, they said, ‘ We aren’t going to make it. We aren’t going to make it. We aren’t going to make it.’ It was great to come through and do it ( Thursday) against the defending Stanley Cup champions. And to do it the front door way and not have to do it against Winnipeg on Saturday.”
There’s one game left on the docket.
Yet, after their biggest victory of the year, the Flames ( 45- 29- 7 and 97 points) are post- season bound, playing the Vancouver Canucks in the first western Canadian playoff matchup since Flames- Canucks in 2004.
The Kings ( 39- 27- 15 and 93 points), meanwhile, are out.
“We definitely earned this,” Wideman said. “We had a team that didn’t win a ton of games by blowout. There were a lot of tight games, we had to battle all year. It allowed us to be ready for a game like tonight.”
The scenario had been laid out so perfectly that the NHL schedule maker must have had a crystal ball.
To have their playoff qualifying chances come down to the final home game of the regular season, against the defending Stanley Cup champions, whom they have already beaten three times — all in exciting fashion — was too good to be true.
And, to boot, against old friend Darryl Sutter, who was the Flames’ general manager the last time this team played meaningful spring hockey. Still, the hosts showed no nerves. Early pressure by Hudler and Matt Stajan allowed Gaudreau to bat the puck in. The goal had to be reviewed but it counted — Gaudreau’s 24th of his rookie season.
The Flames went up 2- 0 when Mason Raymond dropped a pass at the blue- line for Hudler, who leaned in and sent a sizzler past Quick with 5: 32 left in the first period.
The Kings pushed back in the middle frame, out- shooting the Flames 12- 4. But Hiller stood tall.
Playing without Lance Bouma, who had blocked a painful- looking shot in the second period of Tuesday’s 3- 2 win over Arizona, the Calgarians dressed Bollig in his place and promoted Michael Ferland to Bouma’s line with Stajan and David Jones.
Flames head coach Bob Hartley, who hasn’t coached an NHL playoff team since the 2006- 07 Atlanta Thrashers, is also returning to the post season.
“It was crazy,” Hartley said. “Guys were jumping. Sticks were flying everywhere. We could almost feel the fans going through the glass. To pull through in front of our fans was a classy way to do it.”