Flames Falter Against Canucks

The Flames entered tonight’s game against the Canucks coming off a pair of losses to Edmonton in split-squad games on Monday. Calgary chose to go with a lineup of primarily bubble players tonight as each tried to make their mark this preseason. Jon Gillies got the start for Calgary while Thatcher Demko started for Vancouver.

1st Period

Tanner Glass would get the Flames ahead 1-0 early in the period after creating a turnover with a punishing hit. Dillon Dube found the puck in the slot and skated in and set up Glass for a tap in. Solid start!

Calgary would jump ahead 2-0 with that line striking again. Ryan Lomberg would deflect a Rasmus Andersson shot from the slot past Demko. Dillon Dube would get his 2nd assist of the game on the goal.

Anton Rodin would get the Canucks back to within one after his initial shot was blocked but pinballed back to him and caught Gillies out of position. Can’t really fault Gillies for that one.

Mark Jankowski would put Calgary back ahead by two by putting a perfect wrist shot into the top corner after a Canuck turnover. Flames lead 3-1 with Jankowski extending his scoring streak to four straight games dating back to the Penticton tournament.

After the opening period Calgary was ahead 3-1 and would carry a two man advantage into the second period. Shots were 7-4 for the Flames.

2nd Period

Brock Boeser would make it 3-2 with a nice move through the slot and beat Gillies through the five hole. It was a goal that Gillies might like to have back.

Jon Gillies would then be tested with some high quality Canuck chances including a breakaway but would be up to the task. He’d also make a save that looks to be an early save-of-the-year candidate, catching a puck behind his back that had hit off his back and was going in the net. Hard to explain it, but when you see it you’ll say wow.

Vancouver would get the game tied up as the Canucks caught the Flames standing around as Nikolai Goldobin would tap in the puck following a couple rebounds of Gillies.

The Canucks would then get ahead 4-3 with a snipe from Jake Virtanen on the powerplay.

The score would end 4-3 for Vancouver after two periods with the Canucks dominating the second period. They outshot the Flames 19-9 in the period and were ahead 23-16 in the game.

3rd Period

Tyler Parsons would enter the Flames net to start the third period.

After a swack of nothing for the majority of the period, Vancouver would make it 5-3 with Jalen Chatfield beating Parsons over the shoulder with six minutes to play.

The rest of the game would finish with another swack of nothing and Vancouver would leave with the 5-3 victory.

Game Thoughts

Overall it wasn’t a great performance for the Flames but it’s preseason. Calgary’s record falls to 0-3 and they’ll try to notch their first win on Friday when the Arizona Coyotes come to town.

by Michael MacGillivray