THE SKINNY: FLAMES VS. OILERS - GAME 5
The Flames look to keep their season alive tonight against Edmonton
Video: Brendan Parker and Peter Loubardies tee up Game 5
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LEADING SCORERS:
Flames:
1. Johnny Gaudreau (2-11-13)
2. Matthew Tkachuk (4-6-10)
3. Elias Lindholm (5-4-9)
Oilers:
1. Connor McDavid (6-19-25)
2. Leon Draisaitl (7-15-22)
3. Evander Kane (12-3-15)
SPECIAL TEAMS:
Powerplay:
Flames - 12.8% (12th)
Oilers - 26.3% (5th)
Penalty Kill:
Flames - 88.4% (3rd)
Oilers - 84.6% (6th)
Shot Attempts:
Flames - 60.79% (2nd)
Oilers - 48.81% (9th)
High-Danger Scoring Chances:
Flames - 59.42% (2nd)
Oilers - 51.88% (7th)
There's nothing to save it for.
If the Flames are going to stave off elimination and take the series back to Edmonton for Game 6, they have to keep the focus as narrow as possible.
One game.
One win.
That's all that matters right now.
"I think, mentally, that's where you can get yourself in trouble, if you look at it like, 'Oh, we've got to win three games,'" Milan Lucic said on Wednesday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
"In order to win three games, you've got to win one game. ... That's something we've got to do (tonight). We've been a good home team all year long. We've got to rely on our home game, how we've played at home, and rely on our fans coming and cheering us on and having our backs, and going from there."
In other words, don't expect them to go quietly.
On numerous occasions this year, the Flames shown the kind of resilience you'd expect of a team with legitimate Cup hopes.
Even when the chips were down in a crucial Game 4 Tuesday - trailing the Oilers 3-0 in the first period, despite carrying much of the play - they never got flustered.
They stuck with their gameplan and battled back to even the score.
Down … but not out.
Deficit bedamned.
Remember, the Flames have already faced an elimination setting in these playoffs, winning Game 7 of their opening-round series thanks to Johnny Gaudreau and his electric OT tally.
It's fitting, then, to look back and draw parallels, if only because of the win-or-go-home plot staring them down.
In Head Coach Darryl Sutter's opinion, that emotional, suspenseful night against Dallas has prepared the team well for this moment.
"I said before the playoffs started, it's not just experience. It's having a good experience," Sutter said. "This is a good experience."
"You're down to seven teams still playing out of 32. So, it's a whole different level. That pressure of it and that bullseye part of it is way, way higher up than at any point during the season. But what you take from your season, or if you're out of a round and into the next one, then you take those things and you use them.
"And then see how the player actually handles it."
It won't be easy.
But nothing worth doing ever is.
While the dagger served up by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the late stages of Game 4 has put the Flames in this position, that 60-minute effort up in Edmonton might have been Calgary's best of the series.
It's something to build on as they look to carry that over and keep their season afloat.
"We've got to win a game," Lucic said. "Plain and simple. Our backs are against the wall. In the corner, up against the ropes. It's up to us to see what we're made of and go out there and play our game for 60-plus minutes, if that's what it takes, to give ourselves a chance to stay alive."
Video: "It's up to us to see what we're made of"
We may never know the true toll that a Stanley Cup Playoff game has on the human body.
But the grimace on the normally stoic, bubble gum-chewing mug of Chris Tanev in Game 4 gave us a pretty good indication.
There's only one word to describe his effort that night:
Gutsy.
The 32-year-old alternate captain made his return to the lineup after missing four games with an undisclosed injury. He played north of 19 minutes, picked up on assist on Mikael Backlund's middle-frame marker, blocked a shot and was a fixture on the team's penalty-kill.
There were points in the first period, especially, where it was clear the blueliner was testing his impervious pain threshold.
We even wondered, after Zach Hyman scored to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead, if he would return to the ice at all.
But he did.
Again and again, for another 23 shifts of unblemished, defensive genius.
"I think he was very effective last night," Sutter said. "When you look at our defence and Edmonton's defence - Edmonton's defence is an experienced defence. So, when we're playing four young defenceman, those guys need a little bit of a security blanket. And Chris Tanev is that, for sure.
"Not just on the ice. That's in the locker-room (too)."
Video: "It's a whole different level"
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COURTESY OF FLAMES PR
MR. ANDERSSON: With his game-tying-goal in the third period on Tuesday, Rasmus Andersson became the sixth defenseman (eight different times) in franchise history to record a playoff shorthanded goal (Others Paul Reinhart - 2, Gary Suter - 2, Steve Konroyd, Dana Murzyn, Andrei Zyuzin). Andersson leads all Flames defenseman with six points (3G, 3A) in these playoffs.
DOME IS HOME: Calgary had a 25-9-7 record on home ice during the regular season and was tied for the fourth-most goals-for (155) and third-least goals-against (98).
DID YOU KNOW? Johnny Gaudreau has five assists in the series, giving him 86 helpers (regular season and playoffs) this season, the second most in a single season in Flames franchise history. The most all-time belongs to Kent Nilsson who had 91 assists in 1980-81.
Stick tap to Flames PR guru Dalton Ulrich for compiling these nuggets
Video: CGY@EDM, Gm4: Andersson nets SHG from defensive zone
What the Oilers were saying Wednesday ahead of Game 5
Derek Ryan:
"We flush last game. We won, and now we move on and get ready to play what I think needs to be our best game of the series. Obviously, they're going to be desperate and we have to match that desperation."
"We don't want to go back to our barn. We want to end their season (tonight), so that's our desperation level. I don't think it's an on and off switch - you can't just start drifting and hoping it happens. We have to be desperate from the start and play one good game.
Zach Hyman:
"I think any team that's got their back against the wall that's facing an elimination game, it's hard to beat a team and knock them out. We're expecting their best version I think that's to be expected and that's what we're prepared for.
Head Coach Jay Woodcroft:
"We have a strong belief in who we are. I think in Game 6 last series, we played towards our identity. We played fast, we played simple, we got off to a good start, and we carried that game into Game 7 as well. I think that goes back to that belief in being wholly sure of ourselves.
"What it does is allows us to understand the mindset required for success (tonight). We're here to win a game, we're here to play our best game of the series."
