LOS ANGELES – As the Toronto Maple Leafs play-by-play announcer for 17 years, Andy Frost has introduced more than 700 starting lineups.
It would be hard to believe that any of this could have the same significance as the one he announced Saturday night at the Crypto.com Arena.
The event included a personal introduction from his son Morgan and was punctuated by dressing room hugs that could have melted all the snow in Calgary.
After Andy used his iconic voice to kick off the dads' trip with a stirring introduction, Morgan took it upon himself to finish the family affair with the overtime winner over the Kings.
And his first thought afterward in the jubilant Flames locker room was about his hero.
“It’s really nice to have him here,” Morgan said of his father.
“I can’t wait to hug him right now.”
There were hugs all around after one of the Flames' most successful games of the season, with dads flooding the room to share their excitement after a 2-1 win that the team thoroughly deserved.
Outscoring the Kings 38–21 and dominating every statistical category, the Flames improved their recent record to 8–3–1, becoming one of the league's hottest teams.
The Flames' celebration was almost ruined 33 seconds into the extra frame when Adrian Kempe's center pass bounced off Anze Kopitar's trailing foot.
However, video review overturned the goal due to an apparent kick, which set the stage for Frost's heroics.
The game-winner in the first minute of OT started in the Flames' zone when Frost completed a check on Brandt Clarke and stole the puck to create a three-on-one play.
After passing the puck to Jonathan Huberdeau, he then drove to the net where he redirected Huberdeau's perfect return pass past Canada hopeful Darcy Kuemper, silencing the crowd.
Well, most of the crowd, as the jersey-clad Flames fathers in the private box at the far end of the rink jumped to their feet in jubilant mood, exchanged high fives, earning stick-slap salutes from all their sons as they left the ice.
“You probably don’t see my play very often,” Frost smiled, demonstrating the rare physicality he displayed.
“I just saw the opportunity and felt like it was kind of stuck in the wall. It just kind of took off. I think the plan is always to get the puck to Huberdeau and get it open. That's what I was thinking.”
Despite trailing 1-0 after the first period, in which Dustin Wolf made a huge glove save on Kevin Fiala, the Flames felt great about their game.
Six minutes into the second period, Blake Coleman made the world's longest breakaway, which he capped with his third shorthanded goal of the season.
“Happy one of them scored and it was the goal we needed,” said Blake Coleman, who has scored three goals in front of his dads since his dad, Rusty, nicknamed him “Texas Tiger” during player introductions on a recent trip with his dads.
“I think (the nickname) will live on. I mean, when I score, I have a tiger head in the Dome, so I feel like it's very much part of my DNA now.
“As far as I know, our dads are 4-0, so hopefully that will be the case.
“For an away game, it was about as complete and as good as you could play. It was up and down the lineup, to the man, everyone showed up tonight. I think the dads brought the juice we needed.”
They'll try to do it again Tuesday when the Flames wrap up a trip to California with two games in San Jose. But not before fathers and sons take part in Sunday's San Francisco 49ers game.
“I thought Mr. Frost did a great job with our lineup reads today and set the tone for the game,” said coach Ryan Huska, who got 20 timely saves from Wolf.
“I think we had a lot of energy tonight and we played the game the right way.
“There was a good energy in the room. The boys always seem to play well when their dads are in town. When you get their collective group together on a dad trip, you kind of know what they're going to be like in the end.”
