Calgary Flames 3 - Seattle Kraken 4 (SO)

Complete Stats

Scoring

1st: SEA Giordano (3:00) (McCann/Schwartz), SEA Schwartz (6:01) (Larsson/Eberle), CGY Tkachuk (14:54) (Lindholm/Coleman)

2nd- CGY Stone (11:27) (Duehr)

3rd- SEA Schwartz (12:37) (Eberle), CGY Backlund (17:33) (Unassisted)

OT- None

SO- SEA: McCann, Eberle CGY: Tkachuk

The Flames and Kraken met for the first time ever Wednesday night at the Saddledome and gave the fans a fairly entertaining affair. Mark Giordano would make his first return to Calgary after being selected by the Kraken and open the scoring with a backhander beating Dan Vladar, his first tally as a member of the NHL’s newest expansion squad.

Vladar was shaky early on, giving the Kraken a 2-0 lead before he settled in and gave the Flames a chance to get back in the contest. Matthew Tkachuk would get the Flames within a goal as the first period was winding down and Michael Stone would find a loose puck and deposit it in the Kraken net, pulling the Flames even halfway through the second period.

Each team would trade goals in the third and neither team (Seattle had the only shot) could find the back of the net in overtime, so it was on to the shootout round. Seattle would score twice to Calgary’s one goal and walk away with the preseason victory in their first meeting ever with the Flames.

Highlights

Calgary Flames: Vladar is a brick wall!

Seattle Kraken: Mark Giordano scores his first.

Final Thoughts

-The Calgary defence still needs work, but Oliver Kylington sure looked the part tonight on the ice and Juuso Valimaki looked like a much more confident player. Chris Tanev was a welcome site as well as he had a solid game in his first preseason action. Nikita Zadorov worked his way into fans hearts by ripping a certain Calgary media member, but hasn’t done much with his play to stay in Flames hearts. He and Michael Stone had really bad turnovers on the ice, with Stone’s leading to a costly goal.

-Johnny Gaudreau, Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund looked like a cohesive and dangerous line all night long, combining for eight SOG. And the Flames top line of Matthew Tkachuk, Blake Coleman and Elias Lindholm looked like they had been together for a while. Both lines produced a goal in this game and now it could beg the question “where does Sean Monahan fit when he gets his chance to play?”

-Dan Vladar, short of some freak injury or major collapse, looks like he’s planting himself right in the backup role in Calgary. Vladar had another solid performance tonight, going the distance and stopping 18 of the 21 shots he faced.

-Speaking of shots, the Flames still need more. Sure, their 22 SOG Wednesday night was better than their 15 against the Oilers, but it’s not going to be enough once the regular season starts. The good news is three of the 22 went in. So there’s that.

Flame Of The Game

Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images

Mikael Backlund: Backlund had a goal, 4 SOG, blocked a shot, had 2 takeaways and won 53% of his faceoffs.

What’s Next?

10/1: Calgary Flames vs Vancouver Canucks, 7 PM MT