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Johannesburg • South Africa • 15 Years Old • Male
Two rivals from Western Canada surprised many by making the playoffs this season. They are the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames. Both teams haven’t won a playoff series since they made the Stanley Cup. The Canucks made it more recently in 2011 when they lost to the Boston Bruins and the Flames made it in 2004 when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Flames came as more of a surprise due them being in the midst of a rebuild, they were expected to finish towards the bottom of the league again and be in contention for McEichel instead of competing in the playoffs. The Flames have been one the worst puck possession teams in the league. Normally in these situations the teams rely on superb goaltending to get them to do well but that isn’t the case with the Flames. Neither Jonas Hiller nor Karri Ramo put up extraordinary numbers. Their success came from great play from early by defenseman and Captain Mark Giordano who had 48 points in 61 games before a season ending injury. At this time the Flames were expected to crash and burn (no pun intended) but Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman stepped up as well as their front forward line of veteran Jiri Hudler (76 P, 78GP), who had the most points for a player in the month of March, rookie Johnny Gaudreau (64P, 80GP), who tied the lead for rookie scoring with Mark Stone and Sophomore Sean Monahan (62 P, 81GP).
The series will be one two series in the first round to go to seven games. Game 1 and 2 will go to the Flames due to some great goaltending from Jonas Hiller and not so good goaltending from Eddie Lack. For game 3 Ryan Miller will be put in net and will win the game for the Canucks with some outstanding goaltending. Game 4 will be won by the Canucks with bad goaltending at both ends but superb offense from both teams with the Canucks just edging the Flames in overtime. Game 5 will be won yet again by the Canucks by a three goal margin thanks to the Sedin twins. The Flames will do what they have done all season surprise everyone with a combination of great goaltending, great defence and great offense to win game 6 and 7 and win the first playoff series in over ten years.
Series: 4-3 Flames
Game 1: 3-1 Flames
Game 2: 5-2 Flames
Game 3: 2-1 Canucks
Game 4: 6-5 Canucks
Game 5: 6-3 Canucks
Game 6: 4-2 Flames
Game 7: 5-1 Flames
All stats from NHL.com
Filed Under:   Flames   Canucks   Lack   Hudler  
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