Post-season heroes come in all forms from the star player to the unknown fourth-liner. We all know the exploits of the great playoff performers. However, we hardly hear about the unlikely playoff heroes. These unlikely post-season stars can contribute in many ways. Contributions could be for an entire playoff run, a series, a game, or even a goal. These unlikely heroes have made big plays that no one expects. This series looks at all of these unknown stars. These are the unlikely Calgary Flames playoff heroes.
Calgary Flames Playoff Heroes
Mike Vernon
Before the Moment
Some goalies have the destiny to be superstars. Others have to get lucky to get their opportunities. Mike Vernon? He needed the Soviet Union to catch the break that would make him a Calgary Flames playoff hero.
The Calgary native was picked by his hometown team in the 3rd round of the 1981 NHL Draft. Except for brief cups of coffee, Vernon mostly lingered in the Flames minor league system until 1985-86. Before the season, Vernon was the team’s 4th goaltender behind Reggie Lemelin, Marc D’Amour and Rick Kosti.
Enter Dynamo Moscow and the 1986 Super Series.
A tired Lemelin and injured D’Amour opens the door for Vernon to start against Dynamo Moscow. What ensued was the NHL’s only win over Dynamo Moscow in four games, with Vernon stellar in a Flames 4-3 win. On January 9th, 1986, Vernon gets the nod and backstops the Flames to a 5-4 win, breaking an 11-game streak. He’d even pitch a shutout in a 4-0 win over Vancouver later that month.
The Moment
The moment Mike Vernon became a playoff hero didn’t come in one particular game. It came when coach Bob Johnson named the rookie from Calgary the starting goaltender for the playoffs. Vernon records a 3.39 GAA and .875 SV% in 18 regular-season games. This makes him shine compared to the Flames’ other options. Lemelin had a 4.09 GAA and a .872 SV% in 60 regular-season games. D’Amour battled injuries. Kosti couldn’t play well enough to escape the AHL’s Moncton Golden Flames that year.
What ensued was Vernon solidifying the goaltending situation and helping the Flames reach the Stanley Cup Finals. That includes two solid performances during game sevens against Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues respectively, playing well enough to secure one-goal wins in the Western Conference Semifinals and Finals respectively.
The run would come to an end in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens and fellow rookie Patrick Roy. However, most Flames fans would agree the Flames wouldn’t have made it to the Finals if it weren’t for Vernon’s stellar 2.94 GAA and .897 SV% in 21 playoff games.
The Aftermath
The loss to the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals was a setback, but not the roadblock that would keep the Flames from Stanley Cup glory three years later (see the McDonald story below). In the 1989 playoffs, Vernon did some of the best work of his career. His 2.26 GAA and .905 SV% in 22 games those playoffs were critical to the Flames’ success, along with three shutouts. Vernon’s 1986 experience would kickstart a long and prosperous career. He’d finish top-5 in Vezina Trophy voting three times, then win the William M. Jennings and Conn Smythe trophies in 1996 and 1997 respectively with the Detroit Red Wings.
And to think, it all started because the Flames needed someone to play against Dynamo Moscow of all teams.
Lanny McDonald
Before the Moment
It’s hard to believe that a bonafide Hall of Famer would make this list. Yet, in the 1989 NHL Playoffs, it was clear Lanny McDonald was headed towards the career finish line. He’s 36 years old and a veteran of 1,111 rugged regular-season NHL games, 103 equally-rugged playoff games, and nearly 1,000 penalty minutes in the regular season and playoffs combined.
Acquired in a 1981 trade with the former Colorado Rockies (now New Jersey Devils), McDonald earned a Masterton Award the following season with a 66 goal, 98 point outburst in the best offensive season in his career. Six years later, his goal output faded to 11 in his final regular-season. However, he tallied his 500th goal and 1,000th point earlier that season.
The Moment
Up until Game 6, it had not been a playoff to remember for McDonald. He had no goals and three assists in 12 games, and the team captain found himself a healthy scratch for Games 3-5 in the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals. But not Game Six.
What makes McDonald a Calgary Flames playoff hero is the stuff movies, fairy tale books, and legends are made of.
Flames coach Terry Crisp made the tough decision to start McDonald in the potential series-clinching Game Six against the formidable Montreal Canadiens, much to the delight of two future Hockey Hall of Famers that idolized McDonald: Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts.
As he often would throughout his career, McDonald found himself in the penalty box early in the second period. When time expired, McDonald hopped out of the box, streaked down the ice along the right-wing to join a Flames breakout, and took a cross-zone pass from Nieuwendyk and slotted the puck over Patrick Roy‘s glove and inside the post to give the Flames a lead they’d never give up. Doug Gilmour scored a powerplay goal in the 3rd period to give the Flames a 3-1 lead, and they’d hold on to take home the Stanley Cup with a 4-2 series win over the Canadiens.
The Aftermath
That would indeed be it for McDonald and his marvellous mustache. He would lift the Cup that night for the first and only time of his career that night. He soon retires and enters the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
And Flames fans would get memories and a story that will last for generations.
Martin Gelinas
Before the Moment
Martin Gelinas was a solid middle-six winger who was a reliable double-digit goal scorer on any given year, and sometimes even 30+. Besides that, he was also the answer to a popular trivia question: who was the active Los Angeles Kings player not named Jimmy Carson that was traded to Edmonton in the Wayne Gretzky deal? By the time he arrived in Calgary, the two-way forward was 32 years old and on his fifth NHL team. Signed to a 3-year, $4.85 million deal, Flames general manager Craig Button described Gelinas to the Calgary Sun as “a left-winger that fits into one of our holes.”
Flash forward to the 2004 playoffs. Gelinas is 34-years old and coming off a 76 game season in Calgary, tallying 17 goals and 18 assists. Where Gelinas makes this list is his knack for game-winning goals in the playoffs. He scored 23 playoff goals in his career, six of them were game-winners, three of them came in overtime, and two of them came in the 2004 playoffs to send two teams home for the summer. Those last two make Gelinas a Calgary Flames playoff hero.
The Moment(s)
The first victim of Gelinas’ playoff heroics was the 3rd-seeded Vancouver Canucks. The two teams traded wins and losses for six games, culminating in game seven in Vancouver. The Flames appeared to be on their way to a 2-1 win thanks to Jarome Iginla‘s two goals, but Matt Cooke tied it up with six seconds left in the 3rd period, despite being short-handed. With Canucks shut-down defenseman Ed Jovanovski still serving a high-sticking penalty, Gelinas took center stage. The Flames peppered Canucks netminder Alex Auld and, at 1:15 of overtime, Gelinas banked in a rebound over a sprawling Auld to send the Flames into the 2nd round, and a date with top-seeded Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings would become Gelinas’ second playoff victim.
This series looked like the one with the Canucks, with the Flames and Red Wings trading wins up until game six. This game would feature an epic goaltender battle between the Red Wings’ Curtis Joseph and the Flames’ Miikka Kiprusoff. Joseph ended up with 43 saves and Kiprusoff wasn’t far behind with 38 of his own. It was 0-0 heading into overtime, where the stalemate continued for 19:13. That’s when Gelinas struck yet again. In a goal very similar to the one that killed the Canucks hopes just two weeks prior, Gelinas was parked on the back post and banked in a Jarome Iginla shot and rebound into a gaping opening behind Joseph. Gelina claims another victim via a game-winning OT goal, and the Flames move on.
The Aftermath
Gelinas ended up having the most productive playoffs in his career in 2004, netting eight goals and 7 assists in 26 games. He was also a +10 in the playoffs and that brought his career playoff +/- from -8 to +2. The Flames wouldn’t need any last-second heroics from Gelinas to dispatch the San Jose Sharks in six games in the Western Conference Finals. Unfortunately, the Flames would blow a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They’d lose the series clincher in double overtime in game six, and couldn’t overcome two Ruslan Fedotenko goals in game seven to lose 2-1 and the series with it.
Gelinas would finish the third year of his contract in the 2004-05 NHL lockout before signing with the Florida Panthers. He played there for two seasons, getting over 4o points in each season. For his final season in 2007-08, he’d sign with the Nashville Predators. After 20 points in 57 games, he’d play 20 more games overseas with Bern SC of the Swiss league before retiring.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
