*** 2021-22 Playoffs Opening Round: Dallas Stars (WC1) at Calgary Flames (P1) - (CGY WINS 4-3) ***

[Math]

It might be possible that the best team actually won...

[SaucyJack]

Looked pretty even to me.  Johnny Gaudreau on a narrow angle.  Still waiting for the replay on ESPN.

[SaucyJack]

Short side high on a very sharp angle.  A really good snipe wins it.

[Rat Trick]

19 minutes ago, FireDillabaugh said:

Really hope the Round 2 games are as good as these Round 1 games have been.

I bet ya they will be. 

[thegx.ca]

On 5/14/2022 at 7:25 PM, Math said:

 

If Been is involved, then it will be a useless fight. But I didn't recall Zadorov as a tough D-man. Big and heavy yes, but not that intimidating. When he was with Avs vs. the Stars in the 2020 series, he was barely a factor, playing mostly in the third pair.

 

But if this game #7 is turning physical, I fear for the Stars: they have been so soft, it's obvious just by looking at Klingberg who has been molested in the entire series.

Yeah Zadorov is big but not good fighter...hopefully he'll improve one day but not holding my breath hahaha...

[thegx.ca]

1 hour ago, Rat Trick said:

I bet ya they will be. 

Yep, Calgary Edmonton playoff series is what rivalries are all about...too bad there won't be any fights since nobody on Edmonton good enough fighter to challenge Calgary...but still Calgary Edmonton playoff series are legendary and hopefully this one will be too

 

ATTA BOY SUTTER BOYS 12 MORE WINS TO GO

[Brewin Flames]

Johnny Gaudreau scores OT winner to lift Calgary Flames past Dallas Stars, into second round

 

1:22 AM ET

• 
  Kristen ShiltonESPN NHL reporter

Just call him Johnny Clutch. Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau scored the overtime winner to put Calgary past the Dallas Stars 3-2 in Game 7 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Sunday.

The Flames now advance to the second round for the first time since 2014-15, and it'll be for a full-scale Battle of Alberta: Playoff Edition against their provincial rival, the Edmonton Oilers.

 

If there was any doubt what the moment meant to Gaudreau, he made it clear postgame when asked where that winner ranked all time in his career.

"There's no bigger stage than what we just did there," Gaudreau said. "It was really special for me. You dream about stuff like that, scoring in a Game 7 in overtime."

 

"One of the best feelings I've had in hockey is when that went in," added Gaudreau's linemate Matthew Tkachuk of the goal.

 

Tkachuk and Tyler Toffoli added the other markers for Calgary in the win. Jamie Benn and Vladislav Namestnikov scored for Dallas.

 

Netminder Jake Oettinger was the Stars' true MVP, though, making 64 saves as the Flames smothered Dallas with offensive chances. Jacob Markstrom stopped 26 shots at the other end for Calgary.

 

"We deserved to win," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. "We took a hundred and some shots [attempts]. If we'd lost, I know what you would have been saying. So we deserved to win."

True to form, Sutter wasn't effusive with emotion after the Flames' win, either.

 

"He was just telling us he would let us know when the next round is," Gaudreau joked.

 

There were no guarantees a second-round pass was forthcoming for Calgary.

 

Benn had the Stars ahead just 40 seconds into Game 7 off a slick feed from Tyler Seguin. That 1-0 lead held until early in the second period when Toffoli broke through to tie the game 1-1.

 

It took just 30 seconds after that for Namestnikov to give Dallas back a one-goal advantage.

 

Midway through the second frame, Tkachuk scored his first of the series from a terrific assist courtesy of Gaudreau to knot the game 2-2.

 

Calgary kept the pressure on the Stars from there, out-attempting them 102-41 late into the third period. Oettinger continuously closed the door, until finally Gaudreau found his way through to win it for Calgary in the extra frame.

 

This was only the fifth time since 2013-14 that Dallas had reached the postseason, and the Stars were a significant underdog from the start against Calgary. The Stars squeezed into the field with a wild-card bid and were up against the high-flying top seed of the Pacific Division.

 

Dallas held its own, though, topping the Flames in Games 2 and 3 on the strength of excellent goaltending from Oettinger.

 

Then Calgary caught fire. The Flames took Games 4 and 5 by a combined 7-2 score, and Dallas didn't have the output to match. With their season on the line in Game 6, Oettinger pulled out all the stops -- 36 of them total -- to outduel Vezina Trophy finalist Markstrom and pull Dallas into a Game 7 fight.

 

The Stars' top line of Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson was the team's superpower this year. They combined for 105 goals and 232 points in the regular season and 15 more points in seven playoff games. Slowing them down was the Flames' first key to victory.

 

Meanwhile, the Flames' best unit of Elias Lindholm, Gaudreau and Tkachuk made its presence felt, too, although more so in the series' second half. That trio added 17 points in the postseason to lead Calgary's offensive attack, and it was a primary factor again in securing a Game 7 win with five points on the night.

[Brewin Flames]

Thank you JG...those OT games kill me.

 

 

I kinda feel bad for Jake, kept dallas in the series til the end, but so glad we are moving on.

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Gaudreau the hero as Flames advance past Stars

The Flames fired over 130 shots his way. He stopped 65 of 67 that made their way through Dallas’ stingy defence. Then Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau had the puck at the side of the net and fired a perfect shot over Oettinger’s left shoulder, sending the Saddledome into a frenzy after the 3-2 overtime victory on Sunday night.

By Salim Valji

•  

At times during Sunday's winner-take-all Game 7, it felt like the Calgary Flames would never again solve Jake Oettinger. 

The Dallas Stars goalie, who asserted himself to the hockey world during this series as perhaps the National Hockey League’s future perennial Vezina Trophy contender, stymied the Flames through the game’s opening sixty minutes, only surrendering goals on a Tyler Toffoli tip-in and a Matthew Tkachuk power-play goal. 

The Flames fired over 130 shots his way. He stopped 65 of 67 that made their way through Dallas’ stingy defence. Then Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau had the puck at the side of the net and fired a perfect shot over Oettinger’s left shoulder, sending the Saddledome into a frenzy after the 3-2 Game 7 overtime victory.

“It was awesome,” Gaudreau said. “It was a tight series this whole week or two and it came right down to the end there in Game 7 overtime. You dream of stuff like that, scoring in Game 7 in overtime. Nice play by [Tkachuk] behind the net, found [Lindholm] in the front, and I got the rebound…I was just trying to put it on net.”

“I was actually ducking because I knew if he missed, I was right in the line of fire,” Tkachuk said.

During the seven game series, Gaudreau fired 25 shots on Oettinger, including a chance in the slot moments before his game winner. Previously, Gaudreau admitted he felt Oettinger had his number.

“That kid played pretty well throughout the whole series,” Gaudreau said.

Despite Oettinger’s play, the Flames controlled the game in almost every way on Sunday. They had more than double the shot attempts as the Stars. Calgary out hit them 35 to 22 and won 55 per cent of the faceoffs. Despite dominating on paper, it was not an easy few days.

“That was a hard series to win,” Tkachuk said.

“We deserved to win,” head coach Darryl Sutter said.

The road to their first playoff series victory since 2015 was not easy for the Flames, and Oettinger was the biggest reason why. His 0.954 save percentage was the best of any starting goalie in the playoffs, while his 1.81 goals-against average was fourth. On Sunday, he became just the second goalie to record 60+ saves in a Game 7.

Sutter called him the best player of the series. For his part, the third-year goalie was emotional afterwards. 

“It seems like every year flies by and it never ends when you want to unless you win the Cup,” Oettinger said. “This one’s going to hurt for a long time.”

Oettinger plans to use it as fuel.

"I’ve never been more motivated than I am right now,” Oettinger said. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I get this opportunity again and I’ll make sure I’m on the other side of it the next time."

Sutter has now coached in 11 Game 7s, the most in NHL history. He has won eight of them, also the most ever. The series victory over Dallas was another example of the culture change and process shift he has implemented since taking the coaching reigns in March 2021. 

“I’ve said it all along, this is a team that had to get a foundation in place and stick with it,” Sutter said. “There’s highs and lows during a game and there’s highs and lows during a season and we’re a pretty even-keel group.”

 

“The way we battled back in the series,” Gaudreau said, when asked what the group should be the most proud of. "We did that in the series a couple of times and not only in this series but in games, we were down a few times and found a way to battle back and win games. That’s what we’re proud of.”

As for what Sutter is like in the dressing room after a Game 7 overtime win?

“He was just telling us he would let us know when the next round is,” Gaudreau said.

That has been confirmed by the league for 7:30 pm MST on Wednesday as the Flames and Oilers face each other in the playoffs for the first time since 1991.

“It’ll be exciting,” Tkachuk said. “It’ll be great for Alberta.”

“I’ve been here for nine years and never had a sniff of them in the playoffs, so it’s pretty special,” Gaudreau said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and good for the province…it’s going to be a pretty cool series.”

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

8 hours ago, Jimtown guy said:

Come on Calgary. I so want a Oiler/Flames series 

 

You want it?
You got it!

[Buffalo Rick]

The Calgary vs Edmonton is not posted.  I’ll take Flames in 6

[OccamsRazor]

Well i had a Flames vs Bolts rematch still looks on but Flames have me 2nd guessing it.

 

 

About the only place you could put it.

[Math]

Welp, the Stars were a pain in the arse until the very end but there's some justice after all. Mixed feelings after this logical outcome.

 

The minuses: I don't buy the "squad built for the playoffs" and "they played great to put the Flames in the cords" BS. They push the series to the limit only because of Öttinger. I set a threshold to a SV% of .940, well it should have been even higher. Put a only very good goalie in net and it's a sweep. 

 

The first four games were stinkers, old school boring trap Lemaire-like hockey. Then it become watchable and ejoyable from game #5. The Flames put 50+ shots on goal in two games. That tells a lot about the quality of defense-first mindset of the team.

 

Dig in the stats, I've never seen a team playing with a goalie having an overall .954 SV% and 1.81 GAA and still losing a series. That also tells a lot about the inept offense of the Stars. The playoffs tends to narrow the shift between two teams but the difference was still huge. So close, but so far away.

 

The pluses: We may have our franchise goalie for the next years and hope he doesn't turn into a Niemi 2.0. Öttinger made tremendous progress compared to last year, especially on breakaways and regularity. With him and Hintz, Robertson, Heiskanen and prospects Harley, the Stars have a good core to build around. However, they are still stuck with toxic contracts (Benn, Seguin, Suter) and I'm worried about a country club culture that might come from that. I'd buy out Suter (the cap penalty is totally ok and manageable) and find another second-line Dman just to avoid what happened in Minny, but that won't happen.

[thegx.ca]

On 5/16/2022 at 8:53 AM, Hockey Junkie said:

The Calgary vs Edmonton is not posted.  I’ll take Flames in 6

I say The Sutter Boys sweep them

[Math]

On 5/16/2022 at 11:30 AM, Math said:

another second-line Dman

 

Right-handed, but NOT PETRY !!!

 

(and not Dumba, unless we trade for him and find a way to ship out Gurianov and Faksa)