Flames fans celebrate after six- year drought
Faithful cheer on their underdog team as they take series’ game 1
The first post season in six years for the underdog Flames. The first game. The first goal. And then, the first win. Calgary fans were out in full force Wednesday night as they packed the bars to watch their beloved team get off to a 1- 0 series start against the rival Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
As the Flames scored the gamewinner with less than a minute left in regulation, the standing- roomonly crowd at The Pint on 17th Avenue S. W. erupted with deafening cheers.
“It was a beautiful game,” shouted Kyle Wilson above the constant chants of “Go Flames Go!”
It was all the more satisfying for Flames faithful, who have endured a long playoff drought.
“Six years, no playoffs,” said Ryan Kurucz. “We need it, we want it.”
“It was unexpected,” added Wilson. “A bunch of guys going out there working hard, and now we’re sitting here, one game up in the playoffs.”
Fans along 17th Avenue SW, once known as the “Red Mile” during the Flames’ unlikely run to the Stanley Cup final in 2004, agreed there’s something different about this post- season.
Perhaps it’s the end of a six- year playoff drought that has fans fired up. Maybe it’s the fact that the team simply wasn’t expected to go past the regular season, and then proceeded to knock off reigning cup champs the L. A. Kings out of contention in the process.
“It’s got a lot of parallels with the 2004 season,” suggested Brendon Skingle, sitting on the patio at National. “We were in a rebuild season and then they just defied all odds.”
Like much of the crowd packing the bars Wednesday night, Skingle and his friends were too young to partake in the Red Mile of 2004.
“This is like our generation’s cup run,” said Zach Naugler.
Fans are cautiously optimistic that the fan frenzy that put 17th Avenue on the map in 2004 will reappear this time around.
“We’re really excited about it,” said Jon Molyneux. The vicepresident of operations for Concorde Group, which owns more than a dozen bars and restaurants in the city, said he’s expecting a huge turnout for the rest of the games.
“It’s going to bring a lot of business,” he said. “Calgary’s fired up with the fact that we haven’t had playoff hockey in six years.”
“When we got that goal, I thought, ‘ now the Red Mile happens,’” said Stacie Hammer as the rowdy crowd filed out of The Pint. “Everything’s red in here, and we’re all going to filter out onto the street, and it’s amazing,” she said.
“We’re not just celebrating a hockey team, it’s the city. Vancouver fans are hockey fans, but a Calgary Flames fan is a city fan. It’s not just a hockey team.”