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***Katth*** · 06-23-2022, 06:11 AM

Season 50 was a special season for one team in particular, the Calgary Dragons. The Calgary Dragons won the Challenge Cup Finals by beating the Tampa Bay Barracuda by 4-3. In this deep dive I will dig deeper into this season and how eventually the cup was won by Calgary.

Regular Season
Back in season 50 the league consisted out of 16 teams. There were divisions, but the conference rankings decided playoff qualification. The Calgary Dragons finished the regular season with a 27-20-3 record and finished 4th in the Western Conference. Not a stunning record at all (7th league wide), but in the playoffs anything can happen. Mike Izzy lead the team in points with 18 goals and 33 assists followed by Shooter McGavin who scored 23 goals and had 27 assists.

Wildcard round 1: Los Angeles Panthers - Calgary Dragons (1-4)
In the wildcard round Calgary had to face the Los Angeles Panthers who finished 5th in the Western Confernce. In game 1 Calgary won by 1 goal to win 2-3 in the end by a 3rd period powerplay goal scored by Nicky Pedersen Jr. Game 2 was another nailbiter when Calgary came back in the 3rd period by scoring 2 goals and wrapped it up in OT with a goal by Esa Parmborg.

Game 1: Panthers

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2-3
Game 2: Panthers

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3-4 (OT)
Game 3: Dragons

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6-4
Game 4: Dragons

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3-5
Game 5: Panthers

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1-3

Round 2: Calgary Dragons - San Fransisco Pride (4-0)
In the second round the favorite of the Western conference was waiting for the Calgary Dragons. San Fransisco finished first in the Western Conference with quite a big margin compared to the other teams. Even though the Pride were swept, the series a whole lot closer than it looked. Dragons won 3 games by 1 goal and 2 games in overtime. The OT goal scorers for Calgary were Mike Izzy (game 2) and Shooter McGavin (game 3).

Game 1: Dragons

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3-2
Game 2: Dragons

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3-2 (OT)
Game 3: pride

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2-3 (OT)
Game 4: pride

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1-3

Conference Final: Calgary Dragons - New Orleans Specters (4-0)
In the conference final the opponent of the Calgary Dragons were the New Orleans Specters. New Orleans finished the regular season 3rd in the conference with the same amount of points as Calgary, but with a slight better record. After sweeping San Fransisco it was now New Orleans' turn to be swept. Games 1, 2 and 3 were pretty smooth victories for Calgary and game 4 was decided in OT by a goal from Maxime Bouchard.

Game 1: Dragons

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5-2
Game 2: Dragons

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4-1
Game 3: Specters

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0-4
Game 4: Specters

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2-3 (OT)

Challenge Cup Final: Calgary Dragons - Tampa Bay Barracuda (4-3)
In the finals Tampa Bay Barracuda awaited who beat the Hamilton Steelhawks in their conference finals by 4-2. Early in the series Tampa Bay held the upper hand and it looked like Calgary's winning streak was going to end and real fast too. With games 1 and 2 being high scoring games for Tampa Bay, Calgary was looking to close a 2-0 series lead for Tampa Bay. Game 3 at home in Calgary was of utmost importance, but was won by Tampa Bay 3-2. It was now 3-0 in the series and Calgary face being swept in the finals after sweeping San Fransisco and New Orleans earlier in the playoffs. Game 4 was a tight defensive games with only a few goals, but Calgary managed to win 1-2. Same with game 5 and Calgary brought the series back to 3-2. Game 6 was won by Calgary 1-3 and they tied the series back to 3 a piece to play one more final game. A game 7 in Tampa Bay.

Game 7 is a game Calgary will never forgot. They will never forget this whole series. It only ook 38 seconds for Barry Batsbak to get Calgary on the board and a little less than 5 minutes later it was Maxime Bouchard who scored the 2-0. Barry Batsbak also scored his second of the night later in the period for a 3-0 Dragons lead. Early in the 2nd period Shooter McGavin made it 4-0 Calgary and it looked like a done deal, but two Barracuda goals scored Gunnar Soderberg and Matt Kholin made it a two goal game. Kristaps Ball only needed 17 seconds in the 3rd to make it a one goal game and from that point on it was nailbiting close. Tampa Bay created a few really good scoring chances, but Kata Vilde sealed the door so Calgary could go on to win the Challenge Cup.

Game 1: Dragons

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