Skidding Bruins open Western Canada swing vs. surging Flames

The Boston Bruins make the first of three Western Canadian stops on their season-long, five-game road trip, visiting the Calgary Flames for a Monday night matchup of teams trending in opposite directions as they fight in crowded playoff races.

It will be the teams' first meeting of the season and the second game since the NHL's three-day holiday break for both after resuming play on Saturday. The Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 for their seventh win in 10 games, while the Bruins' 4-1 loss at the Buffalo Sabres marked their fifth in a row (0-4-1).

David Pastrnak scored the opening goal in Boston's latest game, but a three-goal second period and four unanswered goals overall flipped the game in favor of Buffalo, which is the NHL's hottest team with eight straight wins.

"We came out, played well -- fresher heads, fresher legs (following the break)," Boston forward Sean Kuraly said. "It was literally just a couple minutes that we weren't sharp. That's frustrating. We're all a part of it. You look at yourself first and just wish you could have a couple of moments back."

Pastrnak is on a three-game point streak and now has 110 regular-season points in the 2025 calendar year, making him the third player in Bruins history to reach that mark multiple times. He leads the team with 41 points this season.

Meanwhile, linemate Morgan Geekie (25 goals) remains the NHL's second-leading goal scorer despite a three-game goalless streak.

Saturday marked Boston's fourth time in the last five games scoring two or fewer goals.

"We have to move forward because it's not going to get easier," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. "It's more on us just to get back to our foundation and back to our game."

Calgary returned from the break for its divisional rivalry game, securing a bounce-back win against the Oilers after a 5-1 loss to them last Tuesday. The Flames have now won six of their seven December home games.

On Saturday, Ryan Lomberg's third goal in a five-game span broke a 1-1 tie in the second period before Blake Coleman added the eventual game-winner in the third.

Coleman's goal was his 11th of the season, matching Matt Coronato for the team lead.

Yegor Sharangovich also scored, while Dustin Wolf (29 saves) won for the sixth time in eight starts while playing his 100th career game.

"We needed our top players to be our top players (in that game), and I felt like they most definitely were," Flames coach Adam Huska said.

Calgary's effort to beat its archrival was significant, especially holding NHL-leading scorer Connor McDavid -- who assisted on all five goals and led a 3-for-6 performance on the power play against the Flames on Tuesday -- scoreless until the final five minutes, making the achievement even more impressive.

"There was a big sense of urgency to come out and play the way we want to play every night," Lomberg said. "Obviously, we weren't happy with how we left things off before the break. We had a handful of days to think about it. We kinda righted the ship. It's big on us to move forward and stay that way."

Boston was a 4-3 overtime winner in both ends of last season's head-to-head series, with a Pastrnak goal deciding the latter game on Dec. 17, 2024, in Calgary. Four of the last five meetings have gone beyond regulation.

The teams will also clash on Jan. 8 in Boston's first game following its current road trip.