A brief history of the Calgary Flames in Game 2

The Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars on Tuesday evening to take a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 takes place on Thursday night in Calgary, and the Flames have a chance to take a stranglehold on the series if they can do something they haven’t done in nearly two decades: win a Game 2.

In the Brad Treliving era, the Flames have lost every Game 2 of every playoff best-of-seven series they’ve played in.

2020 first round, Dallas: The Flames were leading the series 1-0, but lost Game 2 by a 5-4 score. This was the game where Matthew Tkachuk was concussed and left the game. After he left, the Flames got scrambly, and ended up giving up a goal to Jamie Oleksiak with 40 seconds left in regulation to decide the game.

2019 first round, Colorado: The Flames were leading the series 1-0, but lost Game 2 by a 3-2 score in overtime. They were leading 2-1 in the third period, but J.T. Compher scored with 2:39 left in regulation and Nathan MacKinnon scored a heck of a goal off the rush to give Colorado the win.

It was the first of four consecutive wins the Avalanche would get.

2017 first round, Anaheim: The Flames were already down 1-0 in the series to Anaheim, and lost Game 2 by a 3-2 score. In this one, the Flames rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game at 2-2. But a penalty from Dougie Hamilton with just over five minutes left in regulation gave the Ducks a power play and Ryan Getzlaf cashed in to decide the game.

2015 second round, Anaheim: In their first appearance in the second round since 2004, the Flames lost Game 1 against Anaheim by a 6-1 score. They lost Game 2 by a 3-0 score. They were out-shot 20-9 by Anaheim in the first period alone, as the Ducks scored first and then had the game well in hand.

2015 first round, Vancouver: The Flames were leading the series 1-0, but lost Game 2 by a 4-1 score. This was the game that turned into a bit of a gong show at the very end, with all kinds of scrums, skirmishes and general mayhem. Heck, Deryk Engelland fought two Canucks at once.

The last time the Flames won a Game 2 was the 2004 Western Conference Final against San Jose, and the Game 2 win put them up 2-0 in that series. The time before that was the first round in 2004 against Vancouver, where the Flames tied the series 1-1 and ended up winning in seven games.

According to the NHL’s stats packet, teams that get off to 2-0 series leads win 86.6% of series historically, and that percentages rises to 88.8% when they have home ice advantage in the series. So… needless to say: the Flames can put themselves well on the way to winning four games in their best-of-seven series with Dallas by winning the second game.

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