Calgary goalie Curtis McElhinney was hot all night for the Flames. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)Everybody seemed in a hurry to get somewhere on Saturday night in Calgary.
In a game that was essentially meaningless for both teams, the home town Flames and the Edmonton Oilers rushed through their second meeting in two days to wrap up their regular seasons with a 4-1 win by the hosts.
Calgary heads for a first-round playoff matchup with the Chicago Blackhawks, while the Oilers head for the beach.
Calgary (46-30-6) was already set to face the Hawks in the Western Conference quarter-finals as Vancouver clinched the Northwest Division with a 1-0 overtime victory over Colorado on Saturday afternoon.
"Chicago, we think, is a good match-up for us," said Flames' captain Jarome Iginla.
"It's going to be a really good atmosphere in both buildings. They've got a good young team. It's going to be great and I'm looking forward to it."
Edmonton (38-35-9) had already been eliminated from the playoffs for the third straight season.
Calgary received a strong performance by rookie goaltender Curtis McElhinney, who made 35 stops in his first NHL win in 19 appearances, most of them in relief.
Giving Miikka Kiprusoff some rest ahead of the playoffs, the rookie backstop came up with a flurry of acrobatic saves.
The Flames played with just 15 skaters, down from the regular 18, for the second night in a row due to injuries and salary cap restrictions. It is still not known if Calgary will have Robyn Regehr and Cory Sarich in time for the playoffs.
Because the salary cap does not affect playoff rosters, Calgary is now free to call up players from the minors to fill gaps.
"That will be nice," said forward Eric Nystrom. "These two games have been a lot of ice time for a lot of guys."
"It will be good to get a couple days to recover and get the mind right for the real push here."
Mike Cammalleri looked poised for the playoffs, scoring twice and adding an assist.
After Edmonton's Tom Gilbert opened the game with a wrap-around goal just over two minutes into the second period, Cammalleri responded with a couple of markers of his own.
He tied the game 1-1 at 8:26 of the second, throwing a backhand on a rush that got past goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers.
He then scored the eventual game winner later in the period. David Moss carried the puck into the Edmonton zone on a rush and dropped the puck to Cammalleri, who curled away from the net and wired a shot into the top corner.
Craig Conroy added a goal midway through when he stuffed the puck through the pads of Deslauriers on a big rebound from an off-wing shot by Cammalleri.
Jamie Lundmark also chipped in with a goal for Calgary.
