Rooney fell into the boards back-first and was lying on the ice for awhile before being helped to his feet and skating off with the assistance of his teammates.

Anthony Mantha revenge tour

Several Flames were upset by Rooney’s injury, seemingly none more than Anthony Mantha. Mantha spent the remainder of the period trying to fight Miller – and just about anybody else in a blue jersey.

He was called for roughing at 13:39 after trying to get Mantha to fight him (repeatedly). He left the penalty box at 15:39, grabbed an errant Canucks pass in the neutral zone, and scored a breakaway goal on Arturs Silovs for the first Flames goal of the season.

At 18:53, he (finally) fought Miller.

Flames are mad after maskless Vladar is scored on

To add more salt to the Flames’ opening period wounds, goaltender Dan Vladar was hung out to dry, and even allowed a goal after losing his mask on the initial stop.

Nils Höglander’s initial shot was stopped and Vladar lost his mask immediately afterwards. After a scramble in the slot area, Conor Garland fired the puck into the Flames’ net to make it 3-0 Canucks.

Here’s the relevant snippet of Rule 9.6 (Helmets):

“When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and his team has control of the puck, play shall be stopped immediately to allow the goalkeeper the opportunity to regain his helmet and/or face mask. When the opposing team has control of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity. This stoppage of play must be made by the Referee. When play is stopped because the goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask, the ensuing face-off shall take place at one of the defending team’s end zone face-off spots.”

Because the officials judged that there was an immediate/impending scoring opportunity, the play continued and the goal was ruled to be valid.

We’ll see if the final 40 minutes of Flames/Canucks can be anywhere as eventful as the first 20 were.