from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun,

And you thought they had their hearts broken in Anaheim.

On Monday, they were trampled on.

How they could possibly bounce back from this is anyone’s guess.

The Calgary Flames are on the brink of elimination.

And drumming up the sort of resilience they’ve somehow mustered throughout this ill-fated series may finally be impossible now.

“That’s the toughest loss I’ve been around in this organization,” said captain Mark Giordano in a dressing room as silent as the stadium was minutes earlier when the Ducks won 5-4 in overtime.

“It’s a game you’re up 4-1 and can swing the series. Now, it’s do-or-die time, play with nothing to lose. But we better learn a lot from that. I mean, that can’t happen. Obviously, some bad breaks but we had a chance there to just keep storming them and we didn’t.”

Squandering a 4-1 lead accrued midway through the game with a relentless forecheck and physicality, the Flames somehow let it slip away.

More like a crash, sinking the hearts of a city that had all but made reservations for their favourite Red Mile hot spot for Wednesday as part of the celebration that they were back in the series.

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