Flames’ hopes extinguished by Ducks
Elliott gets the hook after three shots as Calgary’s season was effectively finished in the first
CALGARY — Chances of a comeback were slim.
About as skinny as the sliver of daylight between Brian Elliott’s right pad and the short-side post, all the space that Anaheim Ducks forward Patrick Eaves needed to deal a crushing blow to the Calgary Flames’ hopes to extend their playoff run.
Eaves’ awkward-angle stinker briefly let the air out of the Saddledome in the early stages of Wednesday’s Game 4 and although the Flames showed oodles of resiliency as they tried to scratch back, the Ducks were on their way to completing a series sweep with a 3-1 victory.
The Flames, to their credit, buzzed until the clock showed zeros.
The crowd roared until Anaheim’s empty-netter with 6.7 seconds remaining. Many stuck around for a “go Flames go” chant during the handshakes and a standing ovation after that. The Flames are the first troupe eliminated from the 2017 Stanley Cup tournament, left to stew over a combination of bad luck and a few rotten goals against.
Elliott is certainly not the only one of Calgary’s key cogs who didn’t have his best stuff in this best-of-seven set — we’re looking at you, Johnny Gaudreau — but the goaltender is usually the goat or the hero. That’s the nature of the position.
And with Game 4 essentially decided by one goal, that short-side strike will not be easily forgotten.
Elliott was hooked after Eaves’ softy and, ironically, won’t even show on the game sheet as the losing goalie. That dubious distinction belongs to backup Chad Johnson, who was fooled just 68 seconds into his relief effort, but was perfect the rest of the way.
At the other end, Ducks netminder John Gibson delivered 36 saves in a first-star showing.
Nate Thompson also tickled the twine for the Quack Pack, who now await the winner of a showdown between the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks, and captain Ryan Getzlaf scored into an empty net to seal it.
For the home side, Sean Monahan buried yet another man-advantage marker, something he managed in all four clashes in this series.
That’s about the only trend that favoured the Flames.
Many folks figured the Ducks presented the worst-possible matchup of potential opening-round foes and the Pacific Division pennant winners proved that to be true.
They have more depth, more experience, a bit more snarl and, when the crew from Calgary comes calling, a mind-boggling run of dominance on home ice.
Over the last week, they’ve had better goaltending and more puck luck, too.
The only good news is the Flames won’t have to worry about The Curse of Honda Center until next season. If they had forced a Game 5, they would have been facing a must-win at their unhappiest place on Earth, where they’ve now lost 29 consecutive contests.
Elliott was critical of his own performance in Monday’s overtime heartbreaker, a shaky enough outing that some folks wondered if he would even be between the pipes for Game 4.
He was. For a few minutes.
Just 5:38 after the anthems, Eaves retrieved the puck along the side wall and whipped a low shot from below the hash marks that somehow squeaked past Elliott.
The 32-year-old masked man raised his arms slightly, as if to ask the hockey gods, “How the heck did that go in?”
A boisterous crowd of 19,289 redclad supporters were wondering the same thing.
And on the home bench, Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan had already seen enough. Elliott was yanked after just three shots.
Johnson didn’t prove to be immediately bulletproof, either. He stopped the first puck fired his direction, but Thompson buried the rebound to give the Ducks a twogoal lead.
Even with 53 minutes and change to mount a comeback, this was too tall an order.
The Flames pulled Johnson for an extra attacker with 2:39 to go, but couldn’t capitalize.