Dennis Wideman #6 of the Calgary Flames is sent flying by Corey Perry #10 of the Anaheim Ducks in Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Saddledome on May 8, 2015 in Calgary.Todd Korol/Getty Images
Johnny Gaudreau was down, the disappointment palpable in his eyes. Joe Colborne was desolate, his voice cracking as he repeated over and over, "that was on me." Mikael Backlund spoke of the Calgary Flames' resolve and their unwillingness to quit.
All in all though, it was a somber dressing room after a difficult Friday night, the Flames squandering an early lead to drop a 4-2 decision to the visiting Anaheim Ducks in the fourth game of their Western Conference semi-final series that could have easily gone Calgary's way.
Gaudreau made a bad turnover on the Ducks' tying goal, by Andrew Cogliano. Colborne took a double high-sticking minor as time expired at the end of the second period that set the stage for the winning goal by Matt Beleskey. And when given an opportunity to tie the game with an extended third-period five-on-three power play, the Flames couldn't get anything going against the Ducks' penalty killing.
As a result, the Ducks now taken a stranglehold 3-1 hold on their best-of-seven Pacific Division final series, heading into Sunday's fifth game in Anaheim. Calgary has lost 20 regular-season games in a row at the Honda Centre and dropped the first two games in the series by a cumulative 9-1 margin.
So it is a long, daunting road back into the series for Calgary, and it could have been so much different.
Buoyed by the return of a couple of heavyweight forwards, Lance Bouma and Micheal Ferland, the Flames dominated the early going, outshooting the Ducks 9-2 in the first 10 minutes and opening up a 2-1 lead.
But it was all downhill from there, the Ducks able to weather the early storm and gradually, started to take the game over.
Three events proved pivotal in the outcome, and two of them could be traced directly to Calgary's inexperience. The first occurred when Cogliano stripped Gaudreau of the puck in the high slot, just in front of goaltender Karri Ramo with under two minutes to go in the second period.
It was a risky and largely unnecessary play by Gaudreau, coming just after the Flames had successfully killed off a penalty for too-many-men on the ice.
Instead of moving the puck out of danger, Gaudreau skated through the high slot, where Cogliano poked it loose and then played give-and-go with linemate Kyle Palmieri, finishing the play off with a shot between Ramo's legs. A disconsolate Gaudreau skated off towards the boards, bent over, after the Ducks scored the tying goal.
"I take full responsibility for that," said Gaudreau. "It was a puck in front, I turned it up real quick and I didn't see that guy on the board side. Next thing I know, he picked my pocket and tied the game real quick. That was a little momentum shift there."
With the score tied 2-2 and just as time was running out in the second period, Colborne received a double minor for highsticking Ducks' defenceman Francois Beauchemin.
With a four-minute manpower advantage to open the third period, the Ducks received the go-ahead goal from Beleskey, on a rebound with Ryan Kesler providing the screen in front of Ramo.
"That's on me," said Colborne. "That's frustrating. I'm just trying to play on that line of being physical. I'm not going to comment on whether I liked it or not, but that's on me. I definitely let the boys down there. That's tough, but we're not out of it yet. We're going to rebound and have our best game of the year on Sunday."
Later in the third, Calgary received a golden opportunity to tie the game, when consecutive penalties to Corey Perry and Cogliano gave the Flames a 56-second, five-on-three power play. But the Flames were unable to capitalize on the opportunity and didn't get a better one the rest of the way.
Calgary was the least penalized team in the NHL in the regular season, playing a man short only 186 times, but penalty trouble cost them again last night.
Coach Bob Hartley tried to be philosophical when it came to the circumstances of the loss and wouldn't pin the blame on his two young players.
"Where would we be without Johnny Gaudreau?" said Hartley. "You can talk about Johnny, you can talk about Colby's penalty, but they will learn. They're two great kids. It's sad because we paid on both of those situations, but there's comes a point as a coaching staff, you don't want those plays, but you have to learn. When you talk about experience, those situations will make them better. Tonight, we're paying a big price, but at the same time, those guys will be a big part of our team, and they made us win way more games than they made us lose."
Bouma became the 13th player to make his NHL playoff debut for the Flames this spring, and he had a few jitters early, taking an early high-sticking penalty that paved the way for Jakob Silfverberg to score power-play goal for Anaheim, a rising shot on a neat feed from Kesler that may or may not have caromed off T.J. Brodie's stick.
Patrick Maroon completed the scoring for Anaheim with an empty net goal in the final minute of play.
It wasn't all bad for Gaudreau, the showy rookie, who had one of those nights that high-risk, high-reward players sometimes have.
Early on, he made a highlight reel move to dance around the Ducks' Hampus Lindholm in the opening period, deking his way to the net, where the puck slipped off his stick right onto the stick of linemate Sean Monahan. The goal helped the Flames overcome an early deficit and it brought the crowd back in the building.
"There's been a whole bunch of different learning experiences my first year and that's definitely one," said Gaudreau. "I should have got the puck out there. If I saw him there a second or two earlier, I probably would have chipped it off the wall wouldn't have carried it there, but that's what happens.
"They did a good job of rimming pucks out and our forecheck wasn't as good as it was in Game 3. It needed to be a lot better in the third to get a goal there. We need to learn from that.
Only 67 seconds after Monahan's goal, Ferland scooped up a loose puck after a turnover at the Ducks blue line, and blasted a shot past goalie Frederik Andersen, stick side, about a foot off the ice to give Calgary a 2-1 lead. The Flames threatened to add to their lead with a good push from there, Andersen looking vulnerable, but he settled down and didn't allow a goal the rest of the way.
With one last chance to get back in the series, Gaudreau said the challenge for Calgary will be to "put this game behind us. There have been teams that have come back from 3-1 obviously. One thing I've learned playing on this team is, you're never out of it. I think we have a great group of guys in this locker room that can help us pull that off."
Backlund, who did a nice job of checking Ducks' captain Ryan Getzlaf, said more of the same.
"The whole season, we've been coming back from some really tough mountains and we always seem to find ways to climb up to the top," said Backlund. "This is a group that never stops and battles away every day. Our work ethic and character in this room is going to take us through the next couple of games."