The Toronto Maple Leafs made their annual appearance at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday evening, and the Calgary Flames played a weird game. In the first half of the game, all of the goals were scored at special teams and both sides played a pretty structured defensive game. But in the back half, the game opened up… and the Maple Leafs took advantage.
Here are five key moments from the Flames’ 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs.

The Flames score a five-on-three goal (14:16, first period)

Before their power play goal in Seattle on Sunday night, the Flames had scored just a single five-on-three goal this season. On Tuesday, they doubled their season’s total.
With a pair of Maple Leafs in the box of punishment – Conor Timmins and Jake McCabe – Matt Coronato got his own rebound off a Chris Tanev shot block and beat Joseph Woll to open the scoring.
Coronato’s goal came on the heels of a pair of goals disallowed after lengthy reviews, so the crowd seemed pretty jazzed that a goal was actually going to count in this game.

The Flames score another five-on-three goal (5:58, second period)

The Leafs had answered back early in the second period, scoring a pair of power play goals – William Nylander on a one-timer and John Tavares with a nice shot in-close on Dustin Wolf  – to take the lead.
So when the Flames got a second lengthy two-man advantage, they beared down and capitalized. MacKenzie Weegar’s shot was deflected in front by Yegor Sharangovich to tie the game at 2-2.
(To that point, all of the goals had been scored on power plays.)

The Leafs score on odd-man rushes… twice (12:28 and 18:18, second period)

To this point, the Flames had managed to skate with the Leafs. They stayed within their structure, for the most part. But in the back half of the second period, the game got away from the Flames in a hurry.
Before the third Leafs goal, Tyson Barrie pinched down from the right point to an open spot in the zone, and Jonathan Huberdeau attempted to find him with a cross-slot pass. Nobody covered for Barrie’s pinch and Huberdeau’s pass had too much on it, so Barrie couldn’t corral it. The errant pass and lack of coverage led to a turnover, which led to a three-on-one odd-man rush with Brayden Pachal alone to defend it. It didn’t end well.
On the fourth Leafs goal, Rasmus Andersson joined the rush… and nobody stayed back to cover his spot on the point…. and Jake Bean fired a point shot wide of the Leafs net. The puck ricocheted and the Leafs collected it and headed up ice, with only Bean back to defend a three-on-one rush. It didn’t end well.
Following the game, Flames captain Mikael Backlund discussed how the game got away from his team.
“At times we didn’t make the right reads, and they’re a very skilled team that make you pay quickly,” said Backlund. “They’re very good transitioning from defence to offence, and we knew that going in, and there was a few times we didn’t make the right read, and it cost us some chances against and then some goals against.”

Matthew Knies gets a freebie (and the Flames choose not to challenge) (5:44, third period)

The Leafs scored a fifth goal in the third period, with a pass attempt by Andersson bonking off Morgan Frost’s skates and resulting in an Auston Matthews breakaway against Wolf. The good news is Wolf made the initial save. The bad news is Wolf slid a bit out of the crease… and then was led way out of his crease off some contact from both a Flames and a Leafs player.
Flames head coach Ryan Huska summed up his team’s game when speaking to the media.
“I thought we forced offence and we got ourselves into trouble because of that,” said Huska. “So their last three goals before the empty netter was all a result of us forcing the offence, which is something that we typically don’t do. And against a team that’s got skilled forwards like they do, we can’t play that game.”
Flames blueliner MacKenzie Weegar characterized the team’s play as loose, straying from their usual identity and style.
“I thought we didn’t really stay composed,” said Weegar. “That at that time we kind of wanted to do a little too much and you know force a few plays that I don’t think were there at at that time. So, our identity’s, you know, grind it out, forecheck hard, reload hard, move the puck back up to the forwards, get it back in. Our game’s simple and hard.”
Huska was asked about not challenging the fifth Leafs goal for goaltender interference.
“Dustin, when he made the original save he was kind of sliding out of the picture to start with,” said Huska. “So that puck went under him while he was sliding the other direction. So he wasn’t going to be able to get himself set and make that save again.”

Joel Farabee gets his first as a Flame… again (6:02, third period)

In the first period, new Flames forward Joel Farabee scored his first goal with his new team. But it was disallowed after a coach’s challenge. In the third period, Farabee scored his first goal as a Flame… again!
He tipped a Huberdeau shot past Woll for his first with the red team.
The Flames are back in action on Thursday night when they host the Colorado Avalanche.
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