from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

Johnny Gaudreau was down, the disappointment palpable in his eyes. Joe Colborne was desolate, his voice cracking as he repeated over and over, “that was on me.” Mikael Backlund spoke of the Calgary Flames’ resolve and their unwillingness to quit.

All in all though, it was a somber dressing room after a difficult Friday night, the Flames squandering an early lead to drop a 4-2 decision to the visiting Anaheim Ducks in the fourth game of their Western Conference semi-final series that could have easily gone Calgary’s way.

Gaudreau made a bad turnover on the Ducks’ tying goal, by Andrew Cogliano. Colborne took a double high-sticking minor as time expired at the end of the second period that set the stage for the winning goal by Matt Beleskey. And when given an opportunity to tie the game with an extended third-period five-on-three power play, the Flames couldn’t get anything going against the Ducks’ penalty killing.

As a result, the Ducks now taken a stranglehold 3-1 hold on their best-of-seven Pacific Division final series, heading into Sunday’s fifth game in Anaheim. Calgary has lost 20 regular-season games in a row at the Honda Centre and dropped the first two games in the series by a cumulative 9-1 margin.

So it is a long, daunting road back into the series for Calgary, and it could have been so much different.

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