The Flames’ best fights of 2024-25: Ryan Lomberg sticks up for Kevin Bahl

While you can give Lauko the benefit of the doubt on intention – he’s not a dirty player – this was a textbook board/hit from behind. What’s worse is that Bahl missed eight games, a stretch where the Flames went 2-5-1 without their top four defenceman. This is one of many reasons you can point to as to why the Flames just missed out on the post-season.

About six and a half minutes of game-time later, Lauko answered the bell, fighting Ryan Lomberg. This fight can be described in two words: A grappling match. A few punches thrown, Lomberg started it with a superman punch, and got two big uppercuts in, the biggest punches thrown in the fight. Lauko did get a solid punch in towards the end of the fight, but there was a whole lot of jockeying for position in this fight.

And in that regard, Lomberg was doing the man-handling, almost pulling the jersey over Lauko’s head twice. In the end, it was just a good old hockey fight, where the player committing the dirty hit answered the bell.

On Hockeyfights.com, this fight received a 6.38 rating, the second-highest Flames’ fight last season. Moreover, 62% of 65 voters gave this fight to Lomberg, and I’m inclined to agree with the voting. It wasn’t as one-sided as Lomberg’s fight against Nate Bastian though, as Lauko landed some shots in this one.

As for the rest of the game, the Flames eventually went up 5-2 with just over five and a half minutes left, but the Wild scored two goals in the final 75 seconds, bringing them to within one. Thankfully, the Flames held on.

Although there was still a little less than half the season remaining, this was Lomberg’s final fight of the year. In total, he fought seven times out of the 23 times the Flames fought.