Punctuating their most unlikely comeback of the season, Dan Vladar gave a stirring explanation for how it has all been possible.
“Belief, belief, belief is all we’ve got,” the Calgary Flames netminder told reporters after backstopping his team to a shocking 3-2 shootout victory in Denver.
“We might not have the strongest team on paper, but I think we have the strongest team deep inside our heart.”
“So proud of this group, how we responded in the third period.
“We’ve been showing this the whole season that we can stand up for each other and we are like one big family here. Then we get these results, I think it’s because of that — everybody plays with their heart.”
Those hearts came within a dozen minutes of being shattered, as their playoff lives essentially hung in the balance of a game the host Avalanche dominated for almost 50 minutes.
Enter a quartet of the most unlikely heroes since Ghostbusters:
Lomberg’s first in 41 games cut the Avs’ 2-0 lead in half with 12 minutes left, before Klapka buried a Lomberg pass 32 seconds later to tie it up.
From there, Vladar held the fort with a handful of huge saves that got the team to a shootout ended by, of all people, Sharangovich.
Yes, the same Sharangovich whose season-long struggles found him being replaced regularly in the third period by Klapka, who used his six-foot-eight, 235-pound frame to crash the net and start the comeback.
Without the big rookie, and the energy of his fourth line, the Flames go quietly into the night, lose their third in a row and are all but mathematically eliminated from their unlikely playoff race.
Instead, the team boarded a post-game plane to Utah with a bounce in their step, and two shocking points that allowed the lads to climb within five of St. Louis and six of Minnesota with two games in hand on each.
“We’ve kind of been doing it all year,” said Lomberg, whose club has posted comebacks in each of their last five wins.
“We know what we’re capable of, and if we play the right way, we can play with anybody.
“I’m proud of our line. It’s great to contribute offensively. It’s been a little while. Huge win for us.”
On a night in which Colorado’s speed stifled Calgary’s offence throughout the first two periods, coach Ryan Huska deserved plenty of credit for seizing the fourth line’s energy and using it down the stretch.
He essentially double-shifted Klapka, who was also bringing that same energy and physicality to Nazem Kadri’s top unit.
“I think we hung around and found a way, that’s all I can say,” Huska said afterward.
“It was one of those nights where we needed two points.
“There’s a lot of belief in that team right now, so they’re going to keep grinding.”
And grinding and grinding.
Klapka’s goal, his fourth as an NHLer, came moments after he delivered one of his seven hits at centre ice, which helped spring Lomberg in over the Avs’ blue line. The big man then raced to catch up, took a dish from Lomberg off his skates and sniped it short side past Scott Wedgewood.
The look of shock and elation on his face said it all.
“It’s amazing — it shows how strong this team is,” said Klapka, whose first NHL assist saw him deftly corral a rebound he stuffed toward the net for Lomberg to poke in.
“We just tried to do what we’re supposed to do — play simple and go to the net, and it gave us some opportunities to score. I’m happy we won the game.”
To do so, the Flames had to survive an old-school overtime period in which both teams traded endless chances. Shortly after MacKenzie Weegar rang one off the iron, the Avs sent a shot that squeezed through Vladar and trickled right into the post where it sat until Kadri poked it away.
“It hit something in front of me, then it hit me in the chest, then honestly, I had no idea,” said Vladar, who made four of his 28 saves in overtime.
“I was either waiting for the whistle or for the fans to start yelling. I looked behind me and I don’t know if it was Naz or Weegs who pulled it out. I guess two dinners for them.”
And two points for a squad playing its best and most desperate hockey at a time when it’s needed most.
