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Calgary Flames

Calgary Flames Split Squad Splits With Canucks

The Flames couldn’t hold on at home and barely held on on the road in their first preseason action.

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Calgary Flames Preseason

The Flames played their first two games of the preseason as a split squad, taking on the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night. The Flames “A” team dropped a 3-2 OT decision at home to Vancouver’s “B” squad while Calgary’s “B” squad held on for a 4-3 victory over the Canucks “A-ish” squad in Victoria, BC.

Calgary Flames (2) – Vancouver Canucks (3) (OT)

The Flames big guns were at home Monday night taking on Vancouver-Lite and it started off very promising. Calgary took it to the Canucks for the first two periods, out-shooting Vancouver 30-7 over the first 40 minutes. Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Frolik would put the Flames up 2-0 and it looked like Calgary was easily on their way to their first win of the preseason.

Pump the brakes. Vancouver’s Richard Bachman struggled early on, but once he settled in he shut the Flames down. Bachman stopped 34 of the 36 shots that came his way and he allowed the Canucks to get back into this early September game.

At the other end of the ice David Rittich got the start and looked fine. He didn’t have a ton of work on the night, but he did stop all four shots he faced in limited minutes. The newly acquire Cam Talbot got the rest of the game to endear himself to the home crowd and…well….it didn’t go so well. Talbot would surrender three goals on nine shots and Calgary’s 2-0 lead would evaporate and turn into a 3-2 OT loss. More salt to the wound from a game that doesn’t matter? A T.J. Brodie turnover would lead to the GWG for Jake Virtanen (2) in overtime, just after Sean Monahan would miss a wide open net in the extra frame.

Breathe. It’s one preseason game.

Highlights

Calgary Flames (4) – Vancouver Canucks (3)

At the other end of the spectrum the Flames sent their “B” squad to Victoria to take on a stripped down Canucks top team and came away with a 4-3 victory over Vancouver. Calgary dominated this game early on as well, holding a commanding 4-0 lead through the first 42 minutes of the game. Austin Czarnik led the way for Calgary with two goals, while Dillon Dube and Rasmus Andersson would supply the other two markers for Calgary. Tyler Parsons would get the win, stopping 16 of the 19 shots he faced and Artyom Zagidulin would stop all 15 shots he faced as well.

This one would get wonky towards the end as Vancouver would pump in three third period goals to make it interesting, but the Flames would hold on to earn a split with the Canucks.

Highlights

by Mark Parkinson