On Saturday night, the Calgary Flames a game filled with emotion and managed to battle back from a multi-goal deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. On Monday night, their game against the Seattle Kraken lacked emotion – as well as the attention to detail and battle level we’re used to seeing from the Flames – and after a tough start, the Flames just couldn’t battle back.
The Flames saw their winning streak screech to a halt via a 4-2 loss to the Kraken.
The rundown
The Flames didn’t get a shot on goal until past the midway mark of the first period, as they had a ton of trouble with the speed of the Kraken’s forecheckers.
As you might expect given that situation, the Kraken scored first. A Vince Dunn point shot bonked off Branden Tanev to the right of the Flames’ slot area, but bounced right to Yanni Gourde in the slot. Gourde fired the puck past Jacob Markstrom to give the Kraken a 1-0 lead.
First period shots were 11-2 Kraken (all five-on-five) and, via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 15-5 Kraken (high-dangers were 6-3 Kraken).
Martin Pospisil threatened to put some life into this hockey game early in the second period when he crunched Adam Larsson along the boards in the Seattle zone.
A little while later – and we’re not entirely clear why the Seattle forward engaged so ferociously – but Tye Kartye clashed with Pospisil at centre ice, eventually engaging in a quasi-fight. Kartye got an extra roughing minor, which sent the Flames to the power play.
On that power play, the Flames made a couple passes and got the puck to Andrei Kuzmenko, parked to the right of the net. He made a nice little play to sneak the puck behind Philipp Grubauer and tuck it into the net to tie the game up at 1-1.
But midway through the second period, Seattle retook the lead. Brayden Pachal won a corner battle in the Flames’ zone, but his outlet pass ricocheted around off a few sticks and skates and ended up staying in the zone. Jared McCann slid a pass from below the goal line to Oliver Bjorkstrand in the slot, and he fired the puck past Markstrom to make it 2-1 Seattle.
Second period shots were 18-9 Flames (14-9 Flames at five-on-five) and five-on-five scoring chances were 9-6 Flames (high-dangers were 3-2 Kraken).
21 seconds into the third period, Seattle got some insurance. Off a puck dumped into the Flames’ zone, Seattle chased it down and managed to win a puck battle along the wall. Matty Beniers fed the puck to Larsson in the slot and he fired it past Markstrom to make it 3-1 Kraken.
The Flames cut the lead to 3-2 a little later, though. The Flames hemmed the Kraken into their own zone and cycled the puck pretty effectively. Eventually, Kuzmenko got the puck above the circles and fired it past Grubauer to cut Seattle’s lead to one goal.
The Flames had a couple subsequent third period power plays, but an errant pass on the second one led to a breakaway for McCann and a shorthanded goal to make it 4-2 Kraken.
Pospisil laid a big hit on Dunn later in the third period, which crumpled Dunn to the ice and led to a big scrum… and Pospisil getting a major and a game misconduct for checking from behind.
The Kraken held on for the 4-2 victory.
Why the Flames lost
The Flames really didn’t have their usual mojo in this hockey game, especially in the first period. They lost a lot of battles and lost a lot of foot-races to 50/50 pucks. When you’re chasing the puck around for the entire game, it’s tough to win. They had a couple decent flurries, but they just couldn’t muster enough at five-on-five.
Red Warrior
Lets give it to Kuzmenko, who scored twice and looked like he was full of pep.
Turning point
Man, that early third period goal by Larsson really let the air out of the Saddledome. The Flames scored afterwards, but they couldn’t battle all the way back.
This and that
With Connor Zary missing this game with a minor injury, Walker Duehr slotted in on the fourth line. Dryden Hunt ended up rotating down to the fourth line, with Jakob Pelletier moving up to play with Jonathan Huberdeau and Yegor Sharangovich.
The defensive pairs were also mixed up after the first period: Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar with Jordan Oesterle, and Oliver Kylington with Brayden Pachal.
Up next
The Flames (30-26-5) are headed east. They’ll face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday evening in their final game before the trade deadline.
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