Post-Game: Flames thump Canucks in Penticton

If there’s one thing the Calgary Flames seem to enjoy, at every level of the organization, it’s beating up on the Vancouver Canucks. After opening the Young Stars Classic tournament on Friday with an uneven 60 minutes of hockey against Edmonton, the Flames prospects course-corrected rather nicely on Sunday afternoon with a pretty strong effort in a 6-2 win over the Canucks.

The Canucks were all over the Flames early, with Nick Schneider making a bunch of nice saves. The Flames broke the early deadlock about five minutes in, with Spencer Foo polishing off a really nice tic-tac-toe passing play with Andrew Mangiapane and Mark Jankowski to make it 1-0.

Just after, Zack Fischer beat Michael Dipietro with a one-timer from the high slot off a nice pass from Ben Hawerchuk to make it 2-0.

An Aaron Irving point shot through traffic made it 2-1 at the end of the first.

Yan-Pavel Laplante tied the game off a goal-mouth scramble early in the second to tie things up, but that was the last time the Canucks got on the scoreboard. Adam Ruzicka made it 3-2 as he collected his own rebound after a nice set-up pass from Matthew Phillips.

A Foo one-timer on a power play made it 4-2 and began to put the game out of reach.

The third period was more of the same, punctuated by an improbable pair of goals from ECHLer Brett Pollock. First, off a gorgeous end to end rush to make it 5-2.

Then an empty-netter to make it 6-2.

Shots were 34-27 Flames overall.

The Flames were just better than the Canucks. Schneider was better than Dipietro. The Flames took fewer penalties than the Canucks. Several Flames lines looked good: Of course the top line was good, but the rest of the roster chipped in here and there, too.

Let’s go with Foo, but a lot of players looked good. Schneider was good in the first and solid the rest of the way. Others who impressed include Jankowski, Mangiapane, Phillips, Gawdin, Ruzicka and Dube.

On the other hand? I barely noticed Josh Healey.

Mason McDonald dressed as backup.

The Flames finish off their Penticton schedule tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. MT when they face the Winnipeg Jets prospects.