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Calgary, Edmonton mayors gear up for Battle of Alberta with playoff wager

This 12 months’s much-anticipated Battle of Alberta matchup between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers additionally has excessive stakes for the cities’ mayors.

If the Flames win the second-round sequence towards their cross-province rivals, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi will put on a Calgary jersey in addition to full Flames face paint at his subsequent council assembly. If it’s the Oilers who prevail, will probably be Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek in council chambers donning an Oilers sweater along with her face painted blue and orange.

Gondek wouldn’t decide to a prediction for the sequence, however she mentioned she’s assured it’s the hometown Flames who will emerge victorious from the long-awaited tilt.

“I’m very a lot wanting ahead to seeing Mayor Sohi sporting the Flames ‘C’ on his face,” she instructed reporters at Calgary metropolis corridor Monday.

“Mayor Sohi is an excellent man, and I believe he’ll look superb in purple and white.”

In a press release, Sohi referred to as the Battle of Alberta a “dream come true” for hockey followers throughout Alberta, and threw in some trash speak of his personal.

“I might be cheering on the Oilers each step of the best way, and can fortunately ship Mayor Gondek effectively needs when the Oilers beat the Flames and transfer ahead within the playoffs,” Sohi mentioned.

The shedding metropolis council may also donate both to Children Most cancers Care in Calgary or the Children with Most cancers Society in Edmonton, with particular person councillors additionally pitching in a to-be-determined quantity of funds to that initiative.

That’s in recognition of five-year-old Oilers fan Ben Stelter, who’s at present combating mind most cancers.

“It’s becoming that the month of Might is mind tumour consciousness month. Ben has been extremely courageous on this previous 12 months and all hockey followers are cheering him on,” Gondek mentioned.

Ben Stelter at Rogers Place for an Edmonton Oilers playoff game against the Los Angeles Kings on May 8, 2022.
Ben Stelter at Rogers Place for an Edmonton Oilers playoff sport towards the Los Angeles Kings on Might 8, 2022.

The pleasant competitors is invigorating for Calgary, mentioned Gondek, who marvelled on the time that’s handed since 2004, when the Flames made an electrifying run to the Stanley Cup Ultimate.

“I can bear in mind again in ’04, once we have been within the operating and the way thrilling that was. And my child’s turning 18 in a number of months, and I can bear in mind being pregnant at the moment, and pondering, ‘wow, that is wonderful,’” Gondek mentioned.

When the puck drops within the Saddledome for Recreation 1 of the Flames’ tilt with the Oilers, it would mark the primary time since 1991 the squads have competed in head-to-head post-season motion.

The Oilers received that sequence — that means then-Calgary Mayor Al Duerr misplaced his wager with Jan Reimer, his counterpart in Edmonton.

The misplaced wager meant Duerr needed to experience a Zamboni in entrance of Edmonton hockey followers whereas sporting an Oilers jersey. However he courted the disdain of Oilers followers when he ripped off that jersey to disclose a hybrid Flames-Oilers sweater, then tore that one off to point out a Flames jersey beneath.

“You simply can’t take all the Flame out of this boy,” Duerr quipped on the time.

— With information from Madeline Smith and Jim Farrell, Edmonton Journal

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Twitter: @jasonfherring