Jonas Hiller #1 of the Calgary Flames stops the shot of Daniel Sedin #22 of the Vancouver Canucks in Game Three of the Western Quarterfinals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome on April 19, 2015 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.Derek Leung/Getty Images
There were superheroes wandering around the Calgary Stampede & Exhibition grounds all afternoon Sunday, dropping in at the tail-gate parties, contributing to the general party atmosphere. The Calgary Flames were about to host their first NHL playoff game in 2,184 days at the Scotiabank Saddledome on the same day that a massive comics book convention was wrapping up next door.
Everyone seemingly came looking for a hero and it ultimately fell to Flames' first-year forward Michael Ferland to play the part. Ferland – at 6-2, 215, sort of an Incredible Hulk on skates - set the tone in a heavy physical game, won 4-2 by Calgary. Ferland, who is playing mostly because an injury sidelined Lance Bouma, led the hit parade with nine of the Flames' 33 recorded hits, as the Flames took a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven Pacific Division semi-final.
More rough stuff is expected in Game 4, set for Tuesday night.
Ferland managed to get under the skin of half-a-dozen Canucks' players, and eventually dropped the gloves with Kevin Bieksa with 66 seconds to go in regulation.
Seconds earlier, a seemingly frustrated Canucks' forward Alex Burrows had a brain cramp, instigating a fight with Flames' defenceman Kris Russell that, by rule, should result in an automatic suspension.
Presumably, the Canucks will ask for a review of the play in the same way the Flames were able to get an instigator penalty to defenceman Derek Engelland reversed after the second game of the series. Canucks' coach Willie Desjardins said he would wait for the league to "go out and review it on video and then they'll make the call.
"They're a good team and they played hard and you've got to give them credit," continued Desjardins. "We have to be better. We weren't good enough and we know that."
After Thursday's wrecking ball performance, Ferland broke up a crowd of reporters when he revealed post-game that his mother had instructed him to leave the Sedin twins alone.
Why would she say that?
"She loves them," answered Ferland, who said he was willing to risk his mother's displeasure because "that's part of my job. They're their best players – and I want to give them hard minutes too."
Ferland played 26 regular-season games for the Flames this season, but spent the majority of the year with the team's AHL affiliate in Adirondack. He is a favorite of coach Bob Hartley's and last month, celebrated a year of sobriety, something that's helping him to get his career and his life on the right track.
"Ferly is quite a player," said Hartley, "and he's just starting. What a remarkable young man – and so intelligent. You need to be around him to figure out how intelligent this young man is.
"Right from the get-go, he delivered some good solid clean hits and that's the way we always play. He's really creating a good role for himself."
Ferland shared the spotlight with rookie Sam Bennett, who scored his first-ever NHL goal, early in the third period, and defenceman T.J. Brodie, who contributed a goal and an assist. Shawn Mathias scored Vancouver's goal against the Flames' Jonas Hiller, who had a strong game in goal for the home team.
It has been a series of firsts of late for Bennett, a childhood friend of Connor McDavid's and someone who was looking forward to the rivalry that may well ensue once McDavid officially lands with the Oilers. In short order, Bennett has played his first NHL regular-season game, his first playoff game and his first home playoff game. He received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd after his goal gave the Flames a two-goal third-period cushion.
"The support from the fans was unbelievable," said Bennett, who had a welt under his right eye. "It was so much fun playing in front of them."
There had been bad blood brewing between the teams in the first two games of the series and Saturday, the NHL fined Hartley $50,000 "for conduct prejudicial to or against the welfare of the league."
Hartley is essentially playing just five defencemen with Rafa Diaz and Ladislav also currently out with injuries. Engelland's absence would have left them woefully thin against a Canucks' team that consistently runs four lines, with a view to wearing down the Flames' top trio of Dennis Wideman, Kris Russell and T.J. Brodie as the series marches along.
Wideman and Russell are playing the biggest minutes – nearly 30 minutes apiece on a nightly basis – but Brodie was the key offensive factor in the game, stepping up, joining the rush, setting up the first Calgary goal and then scoring the second, for his first-ever NHL playoff points.
Brandon Bollig, who scored only once in 62 regular-season games, roofed one past Eddie Lack to open the scoring, after Mason Raymond's shot caromed fortuitously to him, open in the slot.
Raymond, who spent the first six years of his career in the Canucks' organization, drew into the line-up for the first time in the series, replacing Markus Granlund.
Neither Hartley nor Desjardins is much for the match-up game, so once again, the Sedin twins and Alex Burrows mostly played head-to-head against Calgary's No. 1 unit of Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Jiri Hudler. That line accounted for the bulk of Calgary's scoring in the drive to the playoffs – 95 points in the team's final 33 games – but was held off the score sheet until the third period, when Monahan converted a pass from Gaudreau on a five-on-three power-play to extend Calgary's lead to three goals.
"Defensively, we kept the Sedins pretty quiet and this is not an easy thing to do," said Hartley.
Hartley spoke about the experience gap between his top line and Vancouver's, reminding reporters that Monahan was "six years old when the Sedins got in the league. While Monny was learning to ride his bike, the Sedins were playing in the NHL."
As for the fact that he was $50,000 lighter in the pocketbook, Hartley addressed his fine, if only indirectly, with his usual dry humor.
Asked his thoughts on the Edmonton Oilers' win in Saturday's NHL draft lottery, Hartley answered: "Good for them. I buy lottery tickets every day and I tell the lady at the convenience story, 'you can stop selling them now, I just bought the winner."
Hartley then paused.
"I hope I win the next lottery. I need it."