‘We just didn’t capitalize on opportunities’: strong start slips away for Flames against St. Louis

The Calgary Flames played some very good hockey on Saturday afternoon when they hosted the St. Louis Blues.

They were skating well. They were defending well. They scored a power play goal. They generated what felt like zillions of good scoring chances in the second period as they poured on the pressure on the Blues.

But, as was the story often during the 2024-25 season, the Flames couldn’t convert oodles of scoring chances into oodles of goals. And ultimately, the difference in the game was pretty simple in a 4-2 loss to St. Louis.

“Two goals,” summarized Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “Again, similar to Vancouver, I liked our first couple periods. I thought there was a lot of good things there. We didn’t finish our chances when we needed to earlier in the game, and I think because of that, they were able to hang around, and then they capitalized on a couple point shots where I thought we were looser in front of our net, allowing guys to tip pucks in front of Wolfie. So that to me is the difference.”

The Flames received a pair of goals from Matt Coronato – a wide shot that bounced in off a Blues defender on the power play and a superb snipe off the rush later in the game – but they couldn’t muster anything more. Blues netminder Joel Hofer made 27 stops for the victory.

“Their goalie was playing really well,” said Andersson. “You know, we just didn’t capitalize on opportunities. I mean, I should have probably had three if you look at it. And then a few other guys should have probably scored a few too. So we just didn’t capitalize today.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flames had eight 5v5 high-danger chances in the second period alone (and 14 overall), with five different skaters being credited with two apiece – Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Sam Honzek, Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich. They combined for zero goals.

Huska noted that the team needs to stick with their entire game to have success.

“It’s eventually, it’ll go in if you stay with it, but you have to stay with the other parts of the game as well,” said Huska. “So if you’re a 2-2, then you make sure you’re rock solid at the other end of the ice, and then everything else takes care of itself. Like I think for a couple nights in a row, the game’s got away from us a little bit in the third period, where you want to see a little bit more dig in, whether that’s a shot block that we needed, whether it was a better box out in front of our net, that game should stay 2-2, and we need to find a way to win that game.”

The other big story was the first game action of the season for 2023 first-round pick Sam Honzek and 2024 first-round pick Zayne Parekh, both healthy scratches for the team’s initial back-to-back road set against Edmonton and Vancouver. The top-ranked prospect this summer by the FlamesNation staff, Parekh’s absence in the first two games was the subject of much hand-wringing from the Flames fanbase. (Parekh noted to the media post-game: “I thought I kind of deserved to be up there if I’m being honest.”)

“I thought Zayne was good,” said Huska. “I thought he was fine. You know, there’s a few plays in his own zone where I think the more that he gets in, you’ll see a little bit more composure there with the puck, but I thought he had a fine game.”

“I was pretty nervous actually,” said Parekh. “I felt way more nervous going into this one than my first one. I thought I just tried to have fun with it. The worst thing that could happen is maybe I end up not playing the next game. There’s bigger things than hockey, so I just try to have fun with it. That’s why I play.”

Parekh played 17:21 overall, skating on the third defensive pairing with Brayden Pachal and on the second power play unit. He was even and credited with two shots.

Meanwhile, Honzek played 13:02 on the third line alongside Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. He was a minus-2, and it was his errant pass in the second period that was intercepted by the Blues in the neutral zone leading to their first goal off the rush by Jake Neighbours.

The Flames are back in action on Tuesday when they host the Vegas Golden Knights.