For fans of the Calgary Flames, April 30 marks a sweet anniversary. It was on this day, 40 years ago, that the Flames won a playoff series over the Edmonton Oilers for the first time.
After defeating Winnipeg in the Smythe Division semifinal, the Flames played the Oilers in the Smythe Division final and garnered an upset victory over Edmonton in Game 7 on April 30, 1986. The city went wild. Almost every Calgarian — all 636,000 of us, at the time — was ecstatic. Thousands of people packed into cars and headed to Electric Avenue (11th Avenue S.W., between 4th and 5th Streets) to celebrate. Some estimates indicate there were up to 24 bars operating in about a block and a half of space in Electric Avenue's heyday.
The influx of vehicles caused unexpected road closures, as police dealt with deliriously happy fans. An almost-seemingly impossible hockey dream had come true: the Flames could indeed beat superstar Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers in a seven-game playoff series.
When it came to NHL rivalries in the mid-1980s, no match-ups were more heated than those between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. The entire province stopped and watched when there was a Battle-of-Alberta game. Flames fans loved cheering on players including Lanny McDonald, Joel Otto, Al MacInnis, Gary Suter and Mike Vernon. They loved cheering them on almost as much as they loved heckling Oiler stars Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr. Unfortunately for Flames fans, the Oilers were more than worthy adversaries and more often than not got the best of the Flames.
Gretzky and crew had begun an awe-inspiring run at shattering numerous NHL records, but Flames fans never gave up hope that there was a way to defeat the Oilers. A victory over Edmonton in a playoff series had been highly anticipated for a number of years. The Flames moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980 and made the playoffs in the spring of 1981 and 1982. But the following year, the Battle of Alberta really began to boil.
In 1983, the Flames beat Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs and then met Edmonton in the post-season for the first time. The Flames lost, but vowed to use the experience to make it past the Oilers the next year. However, that next year, 1984, they again lost to Edmonton in the second round of playoffs. It wasn't surprising that when the two teams next met in the post-season, in 1986, most hockey experts predicted an Oilers victory. They were wrong.
The night of April 30, 1986, was the occasion of one of the most famous own-goals in NHL history. During Game 7 of the Smythe Division finals between the Flames and the heavily favoured Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton's Steve Smith banked an errant pass off goaltender Grant Fuhr to give the Flames a goal, a lead and eventual win. The unforgettable moment sealed the Flames' victory and sent Calgary into a frenzy.
