Calgary — Six weeks ago, it was the improbable dream. A reach for the stars. A sentimental journey everyone here wanted to take but few thought possible.
And now it's the greatest reality show in the Stanley Cup playoffs; the story that kept writing itself week after week, game after game, until finally it happened: The Calgary Flames have won enough battles and games to reach the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 15 years.
It happened last night when they stamped their ticket with a 3-1 victory at the Pengrowth Saddledome to eliminate the San Jose Sharks and earn a championship berth against either the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Philadelphia Flyers.
It happened with captain Jarome Iginla scoring the game's all-important first goal to give his side the lead. It happened with Martin Gelinas, better known as The Eliminator, eliminating yet another team with a series-clinching goal. It happened with goalie Miikka Kiprusoff making 18 saves and the ones that really mattered.
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It ended happily, joyously, with the Flames accepting the Clarence Campbell Bowl as the National Hockey League's Western Conference champion.
"We took it into the dressing room and had our celebration," said Iginla, who had waited eight years, his entire professional career, to get this far in the playoffs. "Where is it now? I have no idea."
"We're looking at winning something else," added centre Craig Conroy, another long-time playoff sufferer. "Why stop now?"
The Flames are the first Canadian team to advance to the Stanley Cup final since the Vancouver Canucks in 1994 and could become the first Canadian team to win it since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. What seemed so unlikely in early April has now become the norm. The Flames have spawned more miracles than a weekend at Lourdes. They are the team that couldn't spell the word quit if you spotted them two consonants and a vowel.
"It's just a great mix of guys," said Stéphane Yelle when asked to explain the Flames' success. "All season, we've had injuries and guys stepped in and we got a group that believes we can win games. We can do it."
The Flames began their tour de force when they knocked off Vancouver in a seven-game series, winning the clincher in overtime, on the road. Then they bounced the Detroit Red Wings in six. Then they did the same thing to the Sharks, with defenceman Robyn Regehr scoring the game's final goal into an empty net.
Afterward, in true Flames' fashion, the players took turns praising one another and their boss, Darryl Sutter, who used to coach the Sharks and made a point of congratulating the San Jose players as they left the ice.
"Darryl's been a huge influence on us," Calgary defenceman Mike Commodore said. "He's the reason I'm here and he's a big reason why we've made it this far as a team. I know that in the last few seconds of the game I stopped to take it in and look around the stands. I mean, I can't believe it. A lot of guys never get to play in the NHL or get this far in the playoffs, and here we are."
Although they had lost every previous home game against San Jose, the Flames were confident they could change their fortunes when it mattered most. Sutter did his part by taking his team to a downtown hotel Tuesday night in the hope of recreating the on-the-road mentality that has carried the Flames to three wins in San Jose. But it wasn't as if Sutter was willing to admit as much at the morning skate yesterday.
"Did you stay at a hotel?" Sutter was asked.
"No, no," he said. "Went to swimming lessons."
While the Flames were staying at a hotel just a block away from where the Sharks were residing, Calgary fans took to the streets at 6 a.m. and began honking their horns. The plan was to awake (and anger) the San Jose players but the honking also cut short the Flames' sleep. If that bothered the Calgary players you wouldn't have known it watching them skate and fore-check in the first period.
The Sharks were thrashing about in troubled waters after 10 minutes, giving up a pair of scoring chances before Iginla converted on the power play at 18 minutes 52 seconds of the first period. In the second, Conroy won a neutral-zone faceoff and got the puck to Gelinas, who skated in unchecked from the San Jose blueline and scored his sixth of the postseason at 13:02.
Alyn McCauley was the only Shark to beat Kiprusoff.
"It was a great effort," Sutter said of what his players have accomplished so far. "There wasn't much in either team's tank and they were just going on guts, both sides. It was sort of fitting that Jarome scores the big goal, the first goal, then Martin ended up getting the winner. It's sort of fitting for how our three rounds have [gone]."
