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Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

The difference in the team from before Mangiapane's goal to after was very noticeable. First half of the game guys were squeezing their sticks way too hard, trying to force passes and shots through defenders, and didn't have any rhythm. But after Bread scored and Smith started looking unbeatable, you could see their collective confidence soar and they just took it to the Avs. I really hope they got the jitters out of their system and come out with that same confidence for game 2, it'll be really hard for Colorado to push back if the Flames play that game the same way they did the third period last night

I thought the Flames struggles before the Mangiapane goal are overblown. They were taking it to the Avs before Furlatt started taking the game over and gave the Avs 3 straight powerplays. That killed any momentum the Flames had.

The Hanifin and Fantanberg penalties were soft preseason type calls. None of those were being called in any of the other playoff games. I didn't even catch the penalty at the beginning of the second period.