It’s One for All for Flames

The country is ready to celebrate. The city is prepared to combust.

Through two months, hockey has burned in this city, as thousands have been drawn to the Calgary Flames like moths.

Only one more victory gives the Flames the Stanley Cup, something no Canadian team has possessed since Montreal in 1993. Game 6 is tonight at the Pengrowth Saddledome, and local police have already made plans to monitor an outburst that this city has never experienced, even during the 1988 Olympics or the Flames’ 1989 Stanley Cup championship.

The Flames’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday sent more than 60,000 fans pouring into the Red Mile, the stretch of streets that have become the postgame block party. There may be more team flags on cars than seat belts here. At a local strip club, shows are stopped when the puck is dropped.

Across the country, a hockey-addicted populace is waiting for the Flames to bring the prodigal cup home. The manufacturer of NHL-licensed hockey jerseys in Canada has stopped production on all other jerseys but the Flames to keep up with demand. An estimated 85,000 have been sold thus far.

Only one more victory, although the Lightning does have a say in the matter.

So all the hoopla and revelry stops at the Flames’ dressing room door.

“We enjoy the celebrations, we enjoy the people getting excited about it,” Flame defenseman Andrew Ference said. “But at the same time, we don’t really see the point of getting too excited until you actually win, because that is all that matters to us.

“If we didn’t win the Stanley Cup we would be very disappointed. We wouldn’t have said that at the start of the season. We wouldn’t have said that in round one.”

They are saying it now. The Flames, the sixth-seeded team in the Western Conference, have already beaten Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose -- the conference’s top three seeded teams -- to reach the finals, where they now lead Tampa Bay, the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded team, 3-2 in the series.

Another Flame victory would make them the most improbable Stanley Cup winner in NHL history. The team won only 29 games last season and had not reached the playoffs in seven seasons. Calgary had not won a playoff series since beating Montreal in the 1989 Stanley Cup finals.

With the Cup within reach, there is caution in the air.

“We can appreciate everything after the fact and soak it all up,” Ference said. “I’m sure if we do the job, the excitement will be around for a long time for us to enjoy.”

So first comes the Lightning, which has not lost successive games in the playoffs. The margin for error was so slim Thursday night that Tampa Bay could easily have come to Calgary with the 3-2 series lead.

But Jarome Iginla’s effort in overtime made Oleg Saprykin’s game-winning goal possible.

“That’s the way the playoffs are, there’s a bounce here or there and you end up losing the game,” said Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk, who has played more games without winning a Cup than any player in NHL history. “We have won in their building before and that’s what we’re focused on now, just trying to get that Game 6.”

They will be in the minority. Flame banners decorated the city Friday. Businessmen in slacks, carrying briefcases, were wearing Flame jerseys.

“It will be absolute pandemonium if we win,” said Bob Wells, who has lived in Calgary 31 years and supported the Flames since the team moved from Atlanta. “No one would have dared to think this was possible, even after the playoffs began. This place is ready to go crazy.”

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Games 3, 4 and 5 of the Stanley Cup finals have the lowest average since broadcast networks began carrying the NHL finals in 1998.

Calgary’s 3-2 overtime victory Thursday drew a 2.5 rating, one of the lowest since 1998.

The ratings for the first two games on ESPN were anemic, with Game 1 at 1.1 tying for the lowest-rated finals game on the cable network since 1990. Game 2 was only slightly higher at 1.2.

Associated Press contributed to this report.