Written by Helene Elliott at LATimes.com
The Calgary Flames ask fans to wear the team’s bright red jerseys to games at the Scotiabank Saddledome to create what has come to be known as the “C of Red,” and it’s an impressive sight because almost everyone complies. The Ducks were drowning in that C of red — of red jerseys and red goal lights behind John Gibson on Monday night — before they scored four straight goals to pull off a stunning comeback and wrest a 5-4 victory from the Flames in overtime.
“You never say never,” said Ducks right wing Corey Perry, who was set up by Nate Thompson and Rickard Rakell for a shot that deflected off Calgary defenseman Michael Stone and into the net 90 seconds into overtime. “You just keep pushing shift after shift, get pucks to the net. We found a way tonight and that’s all that matters.”
The biggest playoff comeback in franchise history produced a victory that gave them a forbidding 3-0 lead in this series. Game 4 will be played Wednesday in Calgary.
They trailed, 4-1, in the second period and deserved to be there. But a goal by Shea Theodore with 49 seconds left in the second period, which seemed a footnote at the time, became a turning point.
“We were so disjointed early in the hockey game that we needed something positive to build on,” coach Randy Carlyle said. “Five minutes to go in the second we said we need something to turn the tide. We found a way to claw ourselves back in the hockey game. . . . We couldn’t seem to make two passes together for the better part of two periods. Then we got a goal that gave us life and made us believe.”
Believing led to doing, “once we got through the hurdles of our inefficiency for half the game,” Carlyle said. Jonathan Bernier made 16 saves in relief of Gibson to get the victory, calming that C of Red and putting the Flames on the brink of elimination.
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