In Edmonton, Cam Talbot made 31 saves and shut out the Winnipeg Jets, 4-0, to help the Calgary Flames advance to the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“This is just one step in the big picture,” Talbot said. “We knew this was going to be a hard-fought series, and I think we’ll be better for it playing in the qualifying round. We’re going to be a little bit more battle-tested. Guys in this room gained valuable playoff experience in this round. This was a huge team effort and something we needed moving forward, that valuable experience in all those situations.”
The Flames jumped out early with two goals from Dillon Dube and Sam Bennett.
“Just being able to lock it down in that game, that’s a big step for our group and just being ready for the next round, being able to withstand their push,” Dube said. “It was going to be a big one with their season on the line. That’s a big step for the group, being able to weather that storm.”
Sean Monahan and Rasmus Andersson scored empty net goals 19 seconds apart late in the third period.
“Great first step to move on here to the Sweet 16, but we’ve got to do a lot of the same things and stay focused on what we did well because it just gets tougher from here on in,” Flames forward Milan Lucic said. “It’s fun to win a playoff series here, playoff qualifier here, best-of-5. Looking forward to the next step even though we don’t know who we’re playing yet. We’re going to enjoy this one here tonight.”
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Jets highlights]
Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves in the loss.
“I’ve never had a season like this where you’d faced so much adversity and not quit, right?” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said. “So that’s the value of … That’s how you should value yourself, how hard you compete in dire circumstances, and we just had a year of it. So the feeling we have now is complete emptiness. The payoff is nothing. Other than we’ll find it in a couple of weeks, a couple of months, the growth of some of these young men that will learn to be stronger, heavier players in the playoffs and will develop.”
For the Jets, it was a tough climb with two of their top forwards sidelined with injuries.
“I would say I’m proud and I’m very disappointed that we just couldn’t catch a break,” Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler said. “I’m not saying that this series gets flipped on its head by having Mark and Patty — you’ve got to give Calgary a lot of credit — but I would have loved to have played a series with those two guys and seen how that would have shaken out. Put our best foot forward, and from there you never know what’s going to happen.”
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