<p>In the history of every franchise, there are moments that live on forever as either franchise high points or low points. Some moments encapsulate the club&#8217;s lore.</p>
<p>When it comes to the Calgary Flames, there are 60 seconds that cemented in the minds of fans – and non-fans, if we&#8217;re being honest – just how great Jarome Iginla was during his prime. For one 60 second shift on June 3, 2004 – during Game 5 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final – Iginla showcased why a lot of fans, pundits and players considered him one of the best in the world.</p>
<p>After they eliminated the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, the Flames felt they were playing with house money as they approached their series with the heavily favoured Detroit Red Wings. But the Flames managed to battle through some injury issues and overcame the Red Wings in six games. Once they were past Detroit, the club&#8217;s mentality shifted.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had a little team meeting or whatever, and I can’t remember exactly what he said, but basically the message was ‘Hey, we just beat the best team in the league, this is real now. If we can beat them, we can beat anybody,’&#8221; said Mike Commodore, a blueliner on the 2004 club. &#8220;And I think that was the moment, right then and there… We could win this thing. We’re halfway there, we just beat the best team, why not us? I would say that’s when the belief came forward and we thought there was like a decent chance.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This team came together as a group,&#8221; said David Marcoux, the club&#8217;s goaltending coach in 2004. &#8220;Yes there was Jarome, yes there was Miikka. You need the goalie, you need the goal-scorer. But the amount of guys that were embracing the opportunity that they were getting and getting pushed by a task-master in Darryl Sutter, to play the Detroit Red Wings in the second round and pushing them around in their own building. They’re almost saying to us ‘What are you guys doing? You’re not allowed? Don’t you know who we are?’… We were a bunch of guys that played with a chip on their shoulders, basically.&#8221;</p>
<p>With the confidence at a high, the Flames out-battled the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Final series to win in six games, and the Flames ended up matched against the Tampa Bay Lightning – their third division-winning foe – in the Stanley Cup Final. The first four games were evenly-matched, with the Flames slightly out-scoring Tampa Bay by an 8-6 margin.</p>
<p>Game 5 in Tampa Bay went to overtime, tied 2-2, when Iginla found a whole other level to his game: <strong>The Shift.</strong></p>
<p>With 6:54 remaining in the first overtime period, Tim Taylor beat Craig Conroy (flanked by Chris Simon and Chuck Kobasew) on a neutral zone face-off. After a bit of a sequence of broken back-and-forth plays, Tampa dumped the puck into the Flames&#8217; zone and went for a line change with 6:20 left. The Flames also went for a change, putting Iginla back on (along with Dave Lowry and Marcus Nilson).</p>
<p>At 6:14, Lowry found Iginla with an outlet pass just outside the Tampa Bay blueline and the Flames gained the zone – though it was held by three Lightning defenders. Iginla passed the puck to Nilson, who skated further into the zone and held onto the puck  to await reinforcements. At 6:07, a Robyn Regehr point shot went just wide of the Tampa net, whizzing by to Nikolai Khabibulin&#8217;s right.</p>
<p>Iginla collected the rebound behind the net and attempted to jam the puck in short-side on Khabibulin, but was stopped. Tampa blueliner Nolan Pratt wrestled Iginla to the ice behind the net, ripping his helmet off. (Iginla would play the remainder of the game without a helmet.) Lowry continued to battle with multiple Tampa players for the loose puck below the goal line. The puck drifted into the corner, where Nilson recovered it.</p>
<p>At 5:48, a backhand shot by Nilson missed the net and slid around the end boards for Iginla to recover. At 5:43, Iginla fed a back-hand pass to Nilson at the face-off dot to Khabibulin&#8217;s left, but Martin St. Louis lifted Nilson&#8217;s stick and the puck instead went to Jordan Leopold at the right point. Leopold fired a shot towards the net, but it was swatted down in the slot by Lightning defender Dan Boyle and Vincent Lecavalier recovered the puck and exited the Lightning zone at 5:39. As the Flames tracked back to their own zone, Oleg Saprykin jumped onto the ice for an exhausted Lowry.</p>
<p>Lecavalier attempted to feed St. Louis with a pass through the neutral zone, but it was intercepted by Regehr at the Calgary blueline and play shifted. Regehr passed to Iginla at centre ice, and Iginla fed a quick pass to a streaking Nilson, who entered the Tampa Bay zone at 5:32. Nilson couldn&#8217;t find a lane to the net, so he passed the puck to Regehr at the left point. Regehr fired the puck deep, and then he and Leopold went to the bench to change off for Andrew Ference and Rhett Warrener.</p>
<p>Saprykin recovered Regehr&#8217;s dump-in behind the net to Khabibulin&#8217;s right with 5:27 remaining. He passed the puck to Nilson, at the edge of the nearby face-off circle, and Nilson fired a pass across the width of the zone to Iginla, parked near the face-off dot to Khabibulin&#8217;s left. (The Lightning defenders had collapsed down to the net-front area after Regehr&#8217;s dump-in, which left Iginla with a good amount of space to operate.) Iginla held the puck briefly and moved slightly towards the slot, creating a couple layers of traffic as Tampa defenders moved in his direction to try to block his shot.</p>
<p>Iginla&#8217;s shot got through and was stopped by Khabibulin. However, the defenders had been momentarily more concerned with blocking Iginla&#8217;s shot than marking Saprykin around the crease, and he parked himself in some open space between them and Khabibulin. The rebound went to Saprykin and he got a couple whacks at the loose puck. The second whack put the puck into the net behind Khabibulin with 5:22 remaining and gave the Flames a 3-2 overtime victory (and a 3-2 series lead).</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eq4097-iFdU?si=_dGrzMqQMA10npwK" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>&#8220;It was one of those where you look back on certain games, certain series, whether you played in them or not, there’s always someone that took over,&#8221; said Chris Clark, a winger on the 2004 Flames. &#8220;They’re going to will it, they’re going to do what it takes to get it, and that was that shift and that series and that playoff run. That was a lot, obviously, was riding on his shoulders and he carried us a few times where we needed a superstar to be the best player on the ice and he always was.&#8221;</p>
<p>Iginla was credited with 30:54 of ice time in Game 5, the most of any skater on either team. He finished the game with a goal and an assist, a plus-2 rating, and six shots on goal (including three in overtime). Only Saprykin had as many shots as Iginla among all the players in the game.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think I was out there with him for some of it, but he just wouldn’t get off the ice,&#8221; said Conroy, linemates with Iginla for much of that playoff run. &#8220;I watched the end part, I think, from the bench. He just wasn’t going to be denied. The hooking and the holding and the way everything was back then with all the different rules, he just was not going to be denied. You could just tell, he was on a mission. It’s legendary. That’s what made it special.&#8221;</p>
<p>The victory was the Flames&#8217; 10th road win of that playoff year, tying the New Jersey Devils&#8217; teams from 1995 and 2000 for most road wins in a single playoff year at the time. The win sent the Flames home with a chance to win the Stanley Cup on home ice, and two attempts to win the championship.</p>
<p>The Flames weren&#8217;t able to close out the series, losing at home in Game 6 by a 3-2 score in double overtime – in a game better remembered for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5390359/2024/06/04/flames-martin-gelinas-2004-stanley-cup/">the infamous &#8220;it was in&#8221; non-goal by Martin Gelinas (be sure to check out colleague Julian McKenzie&#8217;s feature at The Athletic)</a> – before Tampa Bay closed out the series at home in Game 7 by a 1-0 score.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s too bad we couldn’t have finished it off, but I know he did everything… we all did everything in our power,&#8221; said Conroy. &#8220;It was a long gruelling playoff series, well, whole playoff, and just came up a little short. It was a heartbreaker for sure. But that was one amazing shift.&#8221;</p>
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Calgary Flames former captain Jarome Iginla

In the history of every franchise, there are moments that live on forever as either franchise high points or low points. Some moments encapsulate the club's lore.

When it comes to the Calgary Flames, there are 60 seconds that cemented in the minds of fans – and non-fans, if we're being honest – just how great Jarome Iginla was during his prime. For one 60 second shift on June 3, 2004 – during Game 5 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final – Iginla showcased why a lot of fans, pundits and players considered him one of the best in the world.

After they eliminated the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, the Flames felt they were playing with house money as they approached their series with the heavily favoured Detroit Red Wings. But the Flames managed to battle through some injury issues and overcame the Red Wings in six games. Once they were past Detroit, the club's mentality shifted.

"We had a little team meeting or whatever, and I can’t remember exactly what he said, but basically the message was ‘Hey, we just beat the best team in the league, this is real now. If we can beat them, we can beat anybody,’" said Mike Commodore, a blueliner on the 2004 club. "And I think that was the moment, right then and there… We could win this thing. We’re halfway there, we just beat the best team, why not us? I would say that’s when the belief came forward and we thought there was like a decent chance."

"This team came together as a group," said David Marcoux, the club's goaltending coach in 2004. "Yes there was Jarome, yes there was Miikka. You need the goalie, you need the goal-scorer. But the amount of guys that were embracing the opportunity that they were getting and getting pushed by a task-master in Darryl Sutter, to play the Detroit Red Wings in the second round and pushing them around in their own building. They’re almost saying to us ‘What are you guys doing? You’re not allowed? Don’t you know who we are?’… We were a bunch of guys that played with a chip on their shoulders, basically."

With the confidence at a high, the Flames out-battled the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Final series to win in six games, and the Flames ended up matched against the Tampa Bay Lightning – their third division-winning foe – in the Stanley Cup Final. The first four games were evenly-matched, with the Flames slightly out-scoring Tampa Bay by an 8-6 margin.

Game 5 in Tampa Bay went to overtime, tied 2-2, when Iginla found a whole other level to his game: <strong>The Shift.</strong>

With 6:54 remaining in the first overtime period, Tim Taylor beat Craig Conroy (flanked by Chris Simon and Chuck Kobasew) on a neutral zone face-off. After a bit of a sequence of broken back-and-forth plays, Tampa dumped the puck into the Flames' zone and went for a line change with 6:20 left. The Flames also went for a change, putting Iginla back on (along with Dave Lowry and Marcus Nilson).

At 6:14, Lowry found Iginla with an outlet pass just outside the Tampa Bay blueline and the Flames gained the zone – though it was held by three Lightning defenders. Iginla passed the puck to Nilson, who skated further into the zone and held onto the puck  to await reinforcements. At 6:07, a Robyn Regehr point shot went just wide of the Tampa net, whizzing by to Nikolai Khabibulin's right.

Iginla collected the rebound behind the net and attempted to jam the puck in short-side on Khabibulin, but was stopped. Tampa blueliner Nolan Pratt wrestled Iginla to the ice behind the net, ripping his helmet off. (Iginla would play the remainder of the game without a helmet.) Lowry continued to battle with multiple Tampa players for the loose puck below the goal line. The puck drifted into the corner, where Nilson recovered it.

At 5:48, a backhand shot by Nilson missed the net and slid around the end boards for Iginla to recover. At 5:43, Iginla fed a back-hand pass to Nilson at the face-off dot to Khabibulin's left, but Martin St. Louis lifted Nilson's stick and the puck instead went to Jordan Leopold at the right point. Leopold fired a shot towards the net, but it was swatted down in the slot by Lightning defender Dan Boyle and Vincent Lecavalier recovered the puck and exited the Lightning zone at 5:39. As the Flames tracked back to their own zone, Oleg Saprykin jumped onto the ice for an exhausted Lowry.

Lecavalier attempted to feed St. Louis with a pass through the neutral zone, but it was intercepted by Regehr at the Calgary blueline and play shifted. Regehr passed to Iginla at centre ice, and Iginla fed a quick pass to a streaking Nilson, who entered the Tampa Bay zone at 5:32. Nilson couldn't find a lane to the net, so he passed the puck to Regehr at the left point. Regehr fired the puck deep, and then he and Leopold went to the bench to change off for Andrew Ference and Rhett Warrener.

Saprykin recovered Regehr's dump-in behind the net to Khabibulin's right with 5:27 remaining. He passed the puck to Nilson, at the edge of the nearby face-off circle, and Nilson fired a pass across the width of the zone to Iginla, parked near the face-off dot to Khabibulin's left. (The Lightning defenders had collapsed down to the net-front area after Regehr's dump-in, which left Iginla with a good amount of space to operate.) Iginla held the puck briefly and moved slightly towards the slot, creating a couple layers of traffic as Tampa defenders moved in his direction to try to block his shot.

Iginla's shot got through and was stopped by Khabibulin. However, the defenders had been momentarily more concerned with blocking Iginla's shot than marking Saprykin around the crease, and he parked himself in some open space between them and Khabibulin. The rebound went to Saprykin and he got a couple whacks at the loose puck. The second whack put the puck into the net behind Khabibulin with 5:22 remaining and gave the Flames a 3-2 overtime victory (and a 3-2 series lead).

<iframe title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eq4097-iFdU?si=_dGrzMqQMA10npwK" width="560"></iframe>

"It was one of those where you look back on certain games, certain series, whether you played in them or not, there’s always someone that took over," said Chris Clark, a winger on the 2004 Flames. "They’re going to will it, they’re going to do what it takes to get it, and that was that shift and that series and that playoff run. That was a lot, obviously, was riding on his shoulders and he carried us a few times where we needed a superstar to be the best player on the ice and he always was."

Iginla was credited with 30:54 of ice time in Game 5, the most of any skater on either team. He finished the game with a goal and an assist, a plus-2 rating, and six shots on goal (including three in overtime). Only Saprykin had as many shots as Iginla among all the players in the game.

"I think I was out there with him for some of it, but he just wouldn’t get off the ice," said Conroy, linemates with Iginla for much of that playoff run. "I watched the end part, I think, from the bench. He just wasn’t going to be denied. The hooking and the holding and the way everything was back then with all the different rules, he just was not going to be denied. You could just tell, he was on a mission. It’s legendary. That’s what made it special."

The victory was the Flames' 10th road win of that playoff year, tying the New Jersey Devils' teams from 1995 and 2000 for most road wins in a single playoff year at the time. The win sent the Flames home with a chance to win the Stanley Cup on home ice, and two attempts to win the championship.

The Flames weren't able to close out the series, losing at home in Game 6 by a 3-2 score in double overtime – in a game better remembered for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5390359/2024/06/04/flames-martin-gelinas-2004-stanley-cup/">the infamous "it was in" non-goal by Martin Gelinas (be sure to check out colleague Julian McKenzie's feature at The Athletic)</a> – before Tampa Bay closed out the series at home in Game 7 by a 1-0 score.

"It’s too bad we couldn’t have finished it off, but I know he did everything… we all did everything in our power," said Conroy. "It was a long gruelling playoff series, well, whole playoff, and just came up a little short. It was a heartbreaker for sure. But that was one amazing shift."
<h2><strong>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY PRO SKATE SERVICE CALGARY
</strong></h2>
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<div>As a 3rd generation, family-owned business since 1972, Pro Skate Service Calgary has an extensive history of expert advice and service that shapes our core values today. We prioritize understanding our customers’ wants, needs, and experiences to tailor solutions that enhance their hockey or figure skating journey. Fortunate to collaborate with outstanding local partners, we serve as a hub of hockey knowledge, offering more than just products, but also valuable learning and development opportunities for players and parents. With goalie, figure skating, and hockey services all under one roof, we deliver the best experience for customers, regardless of sport, position, or skill level. Check us out <a href="https://www.psscalgary.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.psscalgary.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1720999246614000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Lau9YwhSRp23Q3Swa_PgA">https://www.psscalgary.com</a></div>

‘The Shift’: How Jarome Iginla’s legend was cemented in 60 seconds

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