Instant Reaction: Flames tame the Kraken in exhibition play

Shortly after that goal, though, Mitchell Stephens received a pass from Mason Marchment in the offensive zone, and beat Dustin Wolf with a backhander to tie the game at 1-1.

In the second period, though, the Flames grabbed the lead again off a pretty nice little play. Rory Kerins carried the puck into the Kraken zone on a power play rush, but lost the handle on it. Connor Zary nudged the puck back to Kerins, and Kerins beat Grubauer to make it 2-1.

Early in the third period, the Flames added some insurance. Morgan Frost made a gorgeous cross-zone pass down low to Matt Coronato, who fired the puck over top of Kraken netminder Matt Murray to give the Flames a 3-1 lead.

Sam Morton added an empty-netter to make it a 4-1 victory.

How did it go?

The Flames looked much closer to the team we expect to see this season, and they seemed to get better as the game went along. They dressed five first-round picks and several NHL regulars, yeah, you’d expect them to look halfway decent. But the players you would hope to stand out did.

Zayne Parekh, in particular, made a lot of really smart little plays in all three zones. He made a couple passes that led to reactions from his teammates that were along the lines of “Hey, I didn’t know you could do that.” He’s still got some yips in his game – he was a bit too much of a spectator on Seattle’s first period goal – but the shape of his game seems to be progressing nicely.

This and that

Flames lineup:

Huberdeau – Frost – Coronato
Zary – Kirkland – Klapka
Gridin – Kerins – Sharangovich
Stromgren – Morton – Honzek

Bahl – Parekh
Solovyov – Pachal
Kuznetsov – Brzustewicz

Dustin Wolf started in net, backed up by Owen Say. Say came in to relieve Wolf to begin the third period.

Seattle lineup via Deep Sea Hockey:

Tolvanen – Stephenson – Marchment
Kartye – Gaudreau – Melanson
Winterton – Catton – Rehkopf
Goyette – Avon – Stephens

Evans – Fleury
Ottavainen – Mahura
Price – Hammell

Philipp Grubauer started in net, backed up by Matt Murray. Murray came into the game midway through.

Up next

The Flames are headed to Abbotsford on Wednesday to visit the Vancouver Canucks.