CALGARY — The surprising 26-game playoff run by the Calgary Flames ended last night with their fans still cheering, but with the Tampa Bay Lightning as Stanley Cup champions.
Tampa, playing at home, took Game 7 of the final series, beating the Flames 2-1 on two goals by Ruslan Fedotenko in a game marked mostly by defence. Prince Edward Island's Brad Richards won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
Thousands of kilometres away in Calgary, tens of thousands of Flames fans tried to will their squad to win. Calgary's Craig Conroy scored midway through the third period to put the Flames within one goal. But it was not enough.
A controversial charging penalty against Calgary's Andrew Ference with a minute left to play extinguished the Flames' chances.
It was enough to leave one long-time Flames fan shaking his head.
"The refereeing, not just in this series, but all the series, has been awful. Calgary just seemed like a marked team. It didn't matter what they did; they were being penalized," said J-C. Goyens, 49, who joined thousands of other fans along 17th Avenue on what had become known as the Red Mile.
"I would have liked to have seen them play [the series] over again, but with balanced refereeing."
About 15,500 Flames fans watched the loss on huge screens in the Pengrowth Saddledome.
When it was over, Jeff Evans could do nothing but applaud and shrug.
"I thought the year exceeded everyone's expectations. Once we get over the disappointment, I think we'll look back and say it was a lot of fun," said the 34-year-old Calgary Flames fan who watched the hometown team in the Saddledome.
Not far, on the storied Red Mile, the atmosphere was slightly subdued, although thousands of fans still converged on the sidewalks while others continued to honk their car horns. Disappointment, it seemed, was hidden behind some optimism.
"Flames next year," they shouted.
On this night, Flames fans watched their gritty little team via big screen armed with horns, flags and chants of encouragement as if their hockey heroes could sense the motivation.
Jim Peplinski twisted the Stanley Cup ring on his finger as he thought about the Flames' situation: on the road and with a rare chance to bring home the Holy Grail of hockey. He was one of three captains of the 1989 Flames when the team grabbed the Cup in Montreal.
"This is surreal," Mr. Peplinski said. "Think about it -- 15,000 people are in this building watching TV. It's unreal. The tailgate parties. Watching the game in an empty arena. These are magic moments."
Despite the loss, the Calgary playoff run worked a kind of magic across the city and the country. It gave Calgary the kind of marketing push city officials couldn't have scripted or likely ever imagined.
"Now," said Joe Fardell, chief executive officer of Tourism Calgary, "everybody knows where Calgary is."
The impact on the city's psyche and economy has been immense.
Put it this way: The two-day Group of Eight summit in nearby Kananaskis two years ago generated about $211-million in economic spinoffs to the Calgary region, and another $59-million in the rest of the province.
Now look at Calgary's Cup drive. Calgary has been partying for two months.
It was way back on April 7 when Calgary took on Vancouver in the first game of round one and went on to skate past the Canucks, Detroit and San Jose.
"I almost compare this to the Olympics as far as the hype and the exposure," Mr. Fardell said as he thought back to when this city was host of the 1988 Winter Games.
His office is trying to crank out the numbers and expects the figures to be "in the millions," clearly playing down the tourism windfall that has landed in Calgary's lap.
Every hotel is booked solid, partly because of a global petroleum show, but a Flames-induced trend was nonetheless not normal for this time of year. Official Flames jerseys, flags and T-shirts have been selling in the tens of thousands, and with them the heaps of illegal knockoffs.
City bars have been slinging brew and deep-frying chicken wings in gut-churning quantities.
Melrose Café & Bar, which calls itself "ground zero" on the Red Mile, has been ringing its sales at three to four times the normal rate on game days, owner Wayne Leong said.
"Anybody can imagine that is a lot," he said, calling the experience something that has been "history in the making."
How does it feel to come to an end? "It actually feels good," Mr. Leong said.
Last night, like most fans during Calgary's improbable playoff run, people just wanted one last chance to cruise the Red Mile and savour the moment.
Who wouldn't? A chance like this may come around only every 15 years.
