It was a shot that bounced off a pad, sailing past Calgary Flames goaltender Mike Vernon, that brought the 1991 dream to an end.
It was, of course, impossible to know it would end that way. A little more than a month prior, on March 4, 1991, Vernon was in the middle of outdueling Montreal Canadiens goaltender Patrick Roy.
That same night, a still relatively unknown grunge trio known as Nirvana (possibly undersold on the poster only as being “from Seattle”) would play its first show in Calgary at the Westward Club, months before they would release Smells Like Teen Spiritand reach superstardom.
At that time, Catherine Ford was a columnist based at the Calgary Herald, trying to kick her smoking habit and consequently running into serious nicotine withdrawals.
“Let me put it this way,” Ford said. “Not that I remember a lot of the 1990s, but 1991 was a particularly, shall we say, efficacious year.”
Efficacious — productive and constructive — not just because Ford would eventually go on to dump her cigarettes, but also because she began to see the signs of a city in transition.
She watched as the city became one that was more culturally diverse, one that saw booms (and busts) and transformations in its downtown, a city that saw its homogenous political landscape begin to gradually evolve into something more complicated.
An aerial view of the city of Calgary in 1991. (Glenbow Museum)
Still, headlines from the Calgary Herald from that year demonstrate that while some things change, others seem more familiar to the Calgary of today.
Take Ald. Barb Scott’s efforts in the Jan. 21, 1991, edition to convert empty buildings in downtown Calgary to housing in order to serve the city’s needy.
Or, a story from the Feb. 1 edition, which reported on high prices at the pump brought on by an ongoing conflict in the Persian Gulf.
In June 1991, Al Duerr was the mayor of the city, pushing back against a “fat cat” image of Calgary and worried about the spectre of federal cuts.
WATCH | Legendary Calgary goaltender Mike Vernon on the Battle of Alberta
Legendary Calgary goaltender Mike Vernon on the Battle of Alberta
51 minutes ago
Duration 5:26
Advice from a pro! Veteran Calgary Flames goaltender Mike Vernon says players from the Flames and the Edmonton Oilers in Wednesday’s Stanley Cup playoff game need to keep their heads level and take one step at a time in the first Battle of Alberta in decades.
The city had seen more than 4,300 Calgarians laid off in the previous six months, with NovAtel, Canada Packers and other energy companies among those axing positions.
However, Calgary’s unemployment rate was well below the national average. It had gained hundreds of new residents after TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. relocated to the city.
The concern, in Duerr’s eyes, was the federal government eyeing Calgary for cuts based on its “resilient spirit,” bouncing back even though the peak of the oil boom in the late 1970s appeared to be only in the rear-view mirror.
Al Duerr served as the 34th mayor of Calgary, from 1989 to 2001, before being succeeded by Dave Bronconnier. (James Young/CBC)
Today, Duerr sees many similarities between that period of time and the Calgary of today — and where the Battle of Alberta fits into it.
“Back in 1991, we were struggling. We’re struggling now, we’re coming out of a very difficult period,” Duerr said. “The Battle of Alberta gave us that opportunity to refocus.”
‘They choked’
It was in that context that Alberta’s two hockey teams were set to clash in the first round, both organizations fresh off recent championship wins: the Calgary Flames in 1989, the Edmonton Oilers the very next year.
Doug Dirks, the former host of CBC’s The Homestretch, was in Calgary in 1991 doing a daily nationally-syndicated radio feature called the Faceoff Circle.
“There was so much excitement in the city. They were coming off of the 1989 Stanley Cup win and everybody thought that it was going to be a dynasty for the ages,” said Dirks, who became a full-time sports anchor and reporter for CBC in 1993.
Two young unidentified hockey fans, cheering for opposing teams, secured their Game 7 tickets prior to a matchup between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers at the Olympic Saddledome on April 16, 1991. ‘Grant Fuhr, best pressure goaltender in the league,’ said the Oilers fan. ‘[Mike] Vernon’s gonna get the Conn Smythe [Trophy],’ the Flames fan insisted. (CBC Archives)
The day before the puck dropped for Game 7 in Calgary at what was then called the Olympic Saddledome, 2,100 tickets went on sale in the morning, selling out in 50 minutes.
That Battle of Alberta went a full seven games and ended in heartbreak for the Flames faithful courtesy of the stick of Esa Tikkanen. He found the back of the net three times, with his overtime goal sealing the series for Oil Country, four games to three.
“There is no way to soft-pedal the Flames’ 5-4 loss. They choked, plain and simple,” wrote Calgary Heraldsportswriter Eric Duhatschek in a post-mortem.
Four days later, at precisely 3 p.m., Ford put out her last cigarette. The Flames would go on to see a playoff drought, not winning another series until 2004.
At the Westward
Though fans went home dejected that night, Calgary’s future at that time seemed bright in other ways, especially if you weren’t a member of the Flames faithful.
To non-sports fans like Arif Ansari, who likely was at the Westward Club or the Republik Nightclub the night the team got the boot, 1991 was a time when the alternative music scene started to blossom, when there was excitement in the air.
Movie listings from the Calgary Herald on April 16, 1991, the day the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers faced off for Game 7 at the Olympic Saddledome. The Steven Seagal action vehicle Out for Justice topped the box office, having dethroned the previous titleholder, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. (CBC News)
Some early 1990s nights reached legendary status for Ansari, like when American heavy metal band GWAR played at the Westward Club and fans experienced first-hand the band’s schtick of spraying fake blood all over the audience.
“So there’s great stories of people coming home after that show, covered in all this fake blood and walking like a horde of zombies down 17th Avenue,” said Ansari, who runs the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society and is a local music archivist.
Some believed at that time that culturally Calgary could have become the next Seattle, said Mike Bell, the publisher of the Calgary-based monthly arts and culture publication The Scene.
A 1991 poster from the Westward Club, a popular music venue in downtown Calgary that hosted acts like the Flaming Lips, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lenny Kravitz. (Submitted by Arif Ansari)
“There was an excitement about music, about arts,” Bell said.
“People were spending money, people were going to theatre. People were wanting to get out, and artists here didn’t feel like they had to leave. Things were actually happening in Calgary.”
The intangibles
Tonight, the Flames and the Oilers will meet again in a renewed Battle of Alberta. Instead of Theoren Fleury and Tikkanen, this year’s matchup will be headlined by young superstars Johnny Gaudreau and Connor McDavid.
Since the 1991 matchup, Calgary has gone from Duerr, to Dave Bronconnier, to Naheed Nenshi, to Jyoti Gondek.
It’s gone from oil boom, to oil bust, to oil boom again, though this time with heightened urgency as to what comes next — both for the economy and for the climate.
It’s now home to more than 1.3 million residents, up from 750,000 in 1991 (and that’s not to mention bedroom communities like Chestermere, Alta., which has grown to more than 20,000, compared with 900 in 1991).
Former Calgary Flames player Jamie Macoun, who won a Stanley Cup with the team in 1989, says he quickly realized how important the Battle of Alberta was after arriving in Calgary in 1983. (James Young/CBC)
Ford, who has written thousands of columns about Calgary and Alberta, said she’ll continue to defend the place she calls home, no matter what comes next, even if talking about what makes it home can seem cliché — the big, blue wide sky, the mountains, the unpredictable weather that keeps residents on their toes.
“It’s all those intangibles that make you love something. That’s like asking me why I love my husband. Do I love him because he’s tall and handsome and good looking?” she said.
“No, none of those things. I love him because of who he is. I love this city because of what it is, and what it represents to all of us.”
Game 1 of the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs between the Flames and the Oilers kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
