It’s easy to draw parallels between this season and the Calgary Flames’ 2014-15 season.
If you didn’t know, the Flames need a lot to go right on Tuesday to keep their playoff dreams alive. First, they need to win their game against the Vegas Golden Knights, preferably in regulation. They also need help.
The Minnesota Wild, who occupy the first wild card, host the Anaheim Ducks at 6:00 PM MT. At the same time, the St. Louis Blues host the Utah Hockey Club. If you need a refresher on what needs to happen on Tuesday, take a look at Ryan Pike’s article from earlier today.
Tuesday’s game will be the Flames’ 81st of the season, and just over 10 years ago, they played a crucial game. In this edition of Throwback Tuesday, let’s take a look at game 81 of the 2014-15 season.
The situation
On Apr. 8, 2015, the Flames sat in the third spot in the Pacific Division thanks to a 44-29-7 record with 95 points. There was only one team that could catch them, the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings. They had a 39-26-15 record with 95 points, with both teams playing 80 games.
Who did the Flames end up playing on Apr. 9? The Kings. Winning this game would’ve guaranteed them a spot in the post-season as it would’ve eliminated the Kings.
Let’s take a look at what happened in the game.
Flames and Kings for a post-season spot
With just under eight minutes left in the period, the late great Johnny Gaudreau opened the scoring for the Flames. It was his 24th goal of his rookie campaign, as he finished with 64 points in 80 games. Gaudreau finished on the All-Rookie team and third in Calder voting that season. The 2014-15 season was also Johnny Hockey’s first All-Star game. Rest in peace, Johnny and Matthew.
Just over two minutes later, Jiří Hudler scored his 30th goal of the season on a slapshot, giving the Flames a 2-0 lead. This continued to build off his career-high in both goals and points, as his previous best was in 2011-12 with the Detroit Red Wings where he scored 25 goals and 50 points.
The Kings put the pressure on in the second period, outshooting the Flames 12-4. Jonas Hiller stood strong as he had all season, saving all 20 shots he faced through two periods. However, the Kings finally broke through five minutes into the third as Jordan Nolan put them on the board.
In total, Hiller faced 34 shots in the game, saving 33 of them for a .971 save percentage and the first star. The second star of the game, Hudler, found the twine with an empty-net goal with 50 seconds left to clinch the Flames’ berth in the 2015 post-season.
How did the Flames do in the post-season?
In the first round, the Flames matched up with the Vancouver Canucks, who had earned home-ice advantage. I’ve written about that and the rest of the matchups between the two teams in the first edition of Throwback Tuesday back in November.
The short is that they played a bunch of relatively close, low-scoring games until Game 6 at the Saddledome, where the Flames put seven goals in the back of the net to win the series and move on to the second round. The most important one came from Matt Stajan, who scored with 4:17 left to break the 4-4 deadlock.
It didn’t go as well for the Flames in the second round, as they fell in five games to the Anaheim Ducks. After a blowout and a shutout in Games 1 and 2, the series was far more competitive, with Mikael Backlund scoring the overtime winner in overtime to cut the series lead in half. An early Ducks’ goal in the third period was the game-winner in Game 4, and the Ducks won in overtime in Game 5 to end the Flames’ playoff run.
Still, for a team that was supposed to be rebuilding, the 2014-15 season was a great run for the Flames. Hopefully, history will repeat itself on Tuesday.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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