On Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Calgary Flames hosted the Washington Capitals, a team that entered play tied for top spot in the National Hockey League in points.
The Flames played some good hockey, did quite a few good things, but their execution against one of the NHL’s top teams was just poor enough to cost them.
Here are five key moments from the Flames’ 3-1 loss to the Capitals.

MacKenzie Weegar’s errant pass leads to first Capitals goal (1:51, first period)

The Flames were pretty good in Winnipeg, but made just enough mistakes to lose on Sunday night in Manitoba. Well, their return home saw some of their miscues follow them home.
Just shy of two minutes into this contest, MacKenzie Weegar attempted to clear a puck out of the slot area… but he inadvertently chucked the puck right to the Capitals’ Pierre-Luc Dubois, who picked the top corner on Dustin Wolf to make it 1-0 Capitals.

Blake Coleman makes a great play with the puck around the net (12:17, second period)

Midway through the second period, Blake Coleman threw his body around and mucked about to the point where Dubois was irate about what he felt was a missed penalty call on Coleman. That outburst led to Dubois getting tagged with an unsportsmanlike conduct minor.
On the resulting power play, Tyson Barrie’s point shot was slightly deflected by Coleman to tie the game at 1-1.

Blake Coleman makes a poor play with the puck around the net (14:54, second period)

A couple minutes after Coleman’s deft hands led to a Flames goal… a miscue with his hands left to the Flames facing a lengthy two-man disadvantage.
Attempting to swat the puck down, Coleman got a bit crossed up and ended up grabbing (and chucking) the puck.
Coleman explained what happened following the game.
“You just reach up, grab it with your off hand,” said Coleman. “I normally catch a puck in my left hand. It was just for whatever reason, it was my top hand and didn’t really want to drop it in the crease. So just try to clear it out of the zone.”
The Capitals scored on the ensuring five-on-three power play, with Dylan Strome’s go-ahead goal serving as the game-winner.

Rasmus Andersson and Tom Wilson renew acquaintances (15:33, third period)

Y’know who’s kind of a pain in the ass to opponents? Rasmus Andersson. Y’know who’s also kind of a pain? Tom Wilson. They ended up getting coincidental unsportsmanlike conduct minors late in the third period after a pretty heated exchange on the ice.
(The exchange took Andersson out of the mix for a late, unsuccessful Flames’ power play.)
Andersson discussed the exchange post-game.
“I mean, it’s emotions right,” said Andersson. “It’s a couple scrums. There’s a lot on the line for us. And as I said, it’s a lot of emotions. I think that’s one part of the game that I enjoy is to chirp a little bit and get under their skin. It’s just the way it went today. Today it was Wilson and next game is someone else probably.”
Post-game, head coach Ryan Huska shared that he likes when Andersson plays with emotion, as he has over the past few games.
“I feel like when Raz is right on the line and he plays the game with edge, he’s a really good player.”

Dustin Wolf and the Flames slow Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of history (all game)

In Dustin Wolf’s first game matched up against the legendary Alex Ovechkin back on Mar. 14, 2024, the Russian sniper scored two power play goals on five shots. The Capitals won that game by a 5-2 score.
This rematch between Wolf and Ovechkin came as the Russian is 19 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring crown. Ovechkin had four shots… and zero goals.
The Flames face the Capitals one more time on Feb. 25, so we may see another Wolf/Ovechkin clash this season.
The Flames are back in action on Thursday night when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
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