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A mid-April snowstorm in Calgary? Let’s be honest, Thursday’s white-out weather was not the least bit surprising.

We expected that Flames pain-in-the-you-know-what forward Matthew Tkachuk would try to hit everything and probably do some offensive damage, too. He did.

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We expected heart-on-his-sleeve sort Travis Hamonic to sacrifice his body for a few blocked shots. He did, a half-dozen in fact.

Most expected the Calgary Flames, the better team on paper, would — or, at least, should — notch a victory over the Colorado Avalanche in the first game of their Stanley Cup playoff quest. And they did, celebrating a 4-0 triumph in the opener.

Here’s something that nobody saw coming — the Saddledome fans serenading their starting masked man with chants of ‘Smitty, Smitty, Smitty!’

Not just once either.

Too many times to count as Mike Smith pitched a shutout to lead the hosts to Thursday’s blanking of the eighth-seeded Avalanche in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series.