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Flashback Friday: Flames defeat Red Wings in six during 2004 playoff run

Photo credit: Tim Fuller-Imagn Images

By Cynthia Ryley Delaney

Oct 23, 2026, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 23, 2026, 15:02 EDT

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With the Calgary Flames’ home jerseys from the early noughties returning this season, it seems fitting to look at the most memorable playoff run in those jerseys, the 2004 playoffs.

More specifically, their series against their upcoming opponent, the Detroit Red Wings. The Flames 2004 run to the Stanley Cup Finals is one of the most memorable runs of the 2000s for any NHL team. Coming in as the sixth-seed, the Flames knocked off the Vancouver Canucks in seven, the Red Wings and San Jose Sharks in six, before falling in seven to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In this edition of Flashback Friday, we’ll take a look at how that series went against the Red Wings, the team the Flames play on Saturday.

A back story about the Red Wings

Despite being a team based in the Eastern time zone, the Wings played in the Western Conference. That set up terrific rivalries against the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks.

The Original Six team currently owns the current longest playoff drought in the National Hockey League, but that’s coming off 25 consecutive seasons of making the postseason. From the 1982-83 season until the 2015-16 season, the Wings missed the playoffs twice, and never missed it from 1989-90 until it finally ended a decade ago.

That playoff streak had some classic rivalries. They, the Avalanche, and New Jersey Devils dominated much of the second half of the 1990s and early 2000s, with only the Dallas Stars hoisting the Cup aside from those three teams from 1995 until 2003.

Even after the series loss to the Flames, the Red Wings continued to find success for the second half of the noughties. They won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2006, only to be knocked off in the first round by the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers. In 2007, they returned to the Western Conference Finals, before winning it all in 2008, the fourth time since 1997.

After losing to Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, the Red Wings made the second round three times, taking the 2011 Sharks and 2013 Blackhawks to seven games in the second round, before their 25-season playoff streak came to an end in 2015-16.

No team since 1995 has won more Cups than the Red Wings, so the Flames beating the Red Wings in 2004 is a big deal.

The series against the Wings

The Flames’ opening round against the Canucks was a war. Through four games, the teams were split at two wins apiece. In Game 5, the Flames picked up a 2-1 victory to push the third-seeded Canucks to the brink. However, early in triple overtime in Game 6, Brendan Morrison found the back of the net to take up a winner-take-all Game 7.

Of course, that game needed overtime. Iginla scored both goals in regulation, and midway through the third, the Flames took a 2-1 lead. But with six seconds left on the clock, Matt Cooke scored a goal most kids dream of to send it to overtime. It didn’t take long for Martin Gélinas, one of the main characters of this story, to send the Canucks home.

That set up a second-round match-up against the Red Wings.

Opening the scoring in the series was Red Wings’ forward Robert Lang, scoring six minutes into the second period. With about two to play in the middle frame, Robyn Regehr scored to tie it up at one, and since neither team scored in the third, the game went to overtime. There, Flames’ Marcus Nilson was the hero to give them the series lead.

Game 2 was the highest scoring game in the series, and it wasn’t particularly competitive. After neither team scored in the first period, Tomas Holmström opened the scoring for the Red Wings, followed by a pair of goals by Steve Yzerman. Shean Donovan got the Flames on the board, but former Flame Brett Hull put the game away with about five to play in the third. In the end, the Flames fell 5-2 to send the teams to Alberta with the series tied at one.

Neither team scored in the first period of Game 3, shocker, but Lang opened the scoring for the Red Wings early in the second. Just over two minutes later, Stephane Yelle tied it, then Iginla scored about two minutes after that to give the Flames the lead. Red Wings’ Jiří Fischer tied it midway through the second, but Donovan scored his second of the series just 40 seconds later, holding out to be the game-winner.

There was one first period goal scored in this series, and it belonged to Red Wings’ forward Kirk Maltby 26 seconds into Game 4. The Wings extended their lead to 2-0 early in the second, but Gélinas and Ville Nieminen scored two goals 18 seconds apart to tie it at two. In the end, the Red Wings won this game thanks to a game-winner goal midway through the first, followed by an empty net with 24 seconds left. That empty netter turned out to be their final goal of the 2003-04 season.

With the series returning to Michigan, Game 5’s lone goal came with about four minutes left in the second period, as current Flames’ general manager Craig Conroy put the Flames on top. Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all 31 shots he faced, and the Flames had a chance to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Finals at home.

They did just that thanks again to a 1-0 victory. This time, the goal came late in the first overtime period, as Gélinas yet again sent a team home to send the Flames to the following round.

The rest is history. In the Western Conference Finals, the Flames defeated the Sharks in six, with Gélinas scoring the game-winning goal in a 3-1 victory. With the Flames up 3-2 in the series, Gélinas’ shot in Game 6 clearly crossed the line, which would’ve put the Flames up 3-2 in the game. It was deemed to have not gone in, and the Flames lost in seven to the Lightning. It should retroactively be changed.

It’s one of just two times the Flames have played the Red Wings in the playoffs, and it may stay that way unless they meet in the Stanley Cup Finals. In 2007, the Flames lost in six, one of 10 straight seasons where they failed to get out of the first round. They’ve yet to make it to the third round since the 2004 post-season, but man, that run is special.

Cynthia Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for DFO Calgary, DFO Edmonton, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @CynthiaRDelaney.

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