Calgary Flames exit playoffs amid controversy over disallowed goal
CALGARY — The Calgary Dears did not go still, but they still went with the controversial disallowing of a implicit game- winning thing hanging over their exit.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid scoring the overtime winner at 503 on a feed from Leon Draisaitl for a 5- 4 win Thursday stuck the dagger in Calgary's expedients of extending the NHL's first playoff Battle of Alberta in 31 times.
The Oilers took their best- of- seven Western Conference semifinal 4- 1.
Edmonton awaits the winner of the other semifinal between the Colorado Avalanche andSt. Louis Blues to know their conference final opponent.
Thursday's Game 5 was tied 4- 4 heading into the third period. Calgary's Saddledome erupted when the elf laying near the thing- line went off Dears forward Blake Coleman's grind and into the net as he was pushed into the crinkle by Oilers defenceman Cody Ceci with six twinkles remaining in regulation.
Officers reviewed the thing and ruled the elf was demurred in. Debate over whether it should have stood will circulate for some time among disappointed Dears suckers.
" Depends what you call a distinct remonstrating stir," Dears head trainer Darryl Suttersaid.However, protest him in the head, that is a distinct remonstrating stir," If notoriety's on the ground and you lift your bottom up.
Still, it's not a distinct remonstrating stir," If you slide your bottom in the ground."
Said Coleman" I opened my bottom, but my understanding is that you can deflect the elf off your bottom as long as you are not lifting it and remonstrating it into the net. I will go watch it again and perhaps it's glaringly egregious. I just did not feel like I did."
Leading 2- 0 and 4- 3 in the alternate period, Calgary was the better platoon in the sweepstakes circle Thursday, winning 67 per cent of draws.
Mikael Backlund, Johnny Gaudreau, Andrew Mangiapane and Calle Jarnkrok scored while Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves for the Dears.
Calgary was holding McDavid off the scoresheet for the first game in the series until his OT winner.
" He can make anything out of nothing and he is veritably hard to play against," Backlund said.
There was little to choose between the two clubs in Game 5, but the Oilers came through in the tough moments of the series.
" Quite honest, the series was about Games 2, Games 4 and Games 5, which is tonight, they were all tied in the third period half through," Sutter said." Edmonton scored the big thing."
After a 9- 6 palm over the Oilers in a wild Game 1, the Dears were outscored 19- 11.
Calgary's power play was 2- for- 14 overall compared to Edmonton's 4- for- 20.
" It's hard, but I do not suppose we lost this series moment," Backlund said.
" Games 2 and 3 got down from us. Indeed Game 1, we were over 6- 2, we should kill the first game right there. Do not give the big ordnance any free confidence."
Edmonton's top two directors — McDavid and Draisaitl — combined for five pretensions and 24 assists in the series.
Behind McDavid and Draisaitl, the Oilers boasted more timely secondary scoring from Evander Kane, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent- Hopkins throughout the series.
Calgary's top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm combined for six pretensions and eight assists, but just two pretensions and two assists in four straight playoff losses to the Oilers.
" I suppose we all believed we had a deep run in us," Coleman said." You've got to give Edmonton credit. I allowed their big guys played a big series. They had some depth. They made plays in crucial moments of games and we didn't.
" You look at a lot of games that were tight in the third and we just could not come up with that big play to put us over the hump in the last couple games."
The series featured goaltending that veered from brilliant to medium and back again from both Markstrom and Edmonton's Mike Smith.
Despite a many soft pretensions and an early hook in Game 1, the 40- time-old Smith outplayed Calgary's goaltender when it counted.
Still, I am not doing it," Sutter said of Markstrom," If you guys want to condemn." He'd a hell of a time. He is one of our captains, one of our leaders. We won 55 games and how numerous did he win? Utmost of them."
In the" what- ifs" girding Calgary's playoff ouster, a Dears' aft end lacking playoff experience demanded a healthy Chris Tanev to help fight Edmonton's horsepower.
After what appeared to be a right- shoulder injury in Game 6 against Dallas, Calgary's top arrestment defenceman played in pain when he returned to the lineup for the fourth and fifth games of the series against Edmonton.
The hipsterism injury ending centre Sean Monahan's season in April downsized Calgary's power play heading into the playoffs.
The 2022 Dears changed the narrative kindly on their character for playoff fragility by winning a round for the first time in seven times, and doing it with a Game 7 overtime palm over the Dallas Stars in the conference quarterfinal.
Calgary was snappily swept in the first round in 2018 followed by a five- game derangement at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche after beating the Western Conference in 2019.
The Dears exited the first round two times ago when they squandered a 3- 0 lead to lose 7- 3 in Game 6 to Dallas.
Calgary hasn't made it past the alternate round in 18 times. Sutter counseled the Dears to the Stanley Cup final in 2004 when they fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.
" That was the thing, to make the playoffs. Made the playoffs. We had not won a round for a long time. Won a round and kind of ran out of ammo in this round then," Sutter said.
Calgary(50-21-11) outgunned the Pacific Division in Sutter's first full season back behind the bench following his rehiring in March, 2021, with one further regulation palm than Edmonton.
These Dears were constructed for a long playoff run in 2022 starting with the$ 6- million-a-year Markstrom in net.
Feting a lack of playoff experience, Dears GM Brad Treliving stoked his growing bents — Gaudreau, Tkachuk and Lindholm were each 40- thing songwriters for the first time in their careers — with Cup winners or finalists Toffoli, Coleman, Jarnkrok and Trevor Lewis.
With 28- time-old Gaudreau an unrestricted free agent this summer and 24- time-old Tkachuk entering confined free agency, how Treliving can retain both of his top directors is the burning out- season question.
Both will command significant raises on their former contracts after career times. Gaudreau inked a six- time,US$40.5- million contract in 2016, while Tkachuk agreed to a three- time,$ 21- million deal in 2019.
Also headed for unrestricted free agency are on Lewis, Jarnkrok and Brett Ritchie, as well as defencemen Nikita Zadorov, Erik Gudbranson and Michael Stone.
Mangiapane, a 35- thing man in the regular season, and defenceman Oliver Kylington join Tkachuk in confined free agency.