Beyond the Boxscore: Fiesty affair between Flames and Canucks ends with Calgary victorious

The Calgary Flames ended the year 2024 with a scrappy 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

CF% – 61.62%|| SCF% – 67.56%|| HDCF% – 59.31%|| xGF% – 57.3%

It’s a Team Game – New Year’s Eve provided a great atmosphere for the crowd inside the Saddledome. The game they were entertained with was full of plenty to cheer for and they delivered big time with every hit, goal, or fight that came along. Calgary got started on time and got off to an early lead of a Zary tap-in. It came after an incredible Weegar stretch pass to start the whole play. The Canucks got a power play marker to get things back to even, but Nazem Kadri would find the eventual game-winner off the rush mid-way through the third period. Dustin Wolf was his usual dialed in self all night long and it will result in Calgary leaving 2024 sitting in the second wild card position, ahead of the Canucks.

Corsi King – Jakob Pelletier (74.40 CF%) had himself a pretty nice night. He was noticeable in his puck pursuit all night game long and never gave up on the play that led to the first goal. He was sprung on a breakaway from MacKenzie Weegar (71.65 per cent), a beautiful pass that stretched the defence, and made a nice deke/shot combination but was stopped. He stayed with his man and tied up the defender allowing Yegor Sharangovich (59.06 per cent) to whack the puck to an open Connor Zary (63.45 per cent) for the score. It was the second quality game for that trio in the three games since coming back for the holidays. Pelletier himself looks like he’s earning an everyday spot in the lineup.

Under Pressure –

Taken By Chance – MacKenzie Weegar (92.21 SCF% || 100 HDCF%) was the best player on the ice tonight. He controlled the flow of play every single time he was deployed and was directly responsible for the plays leading to both Flames goals. Joel Hanley (91.55 per cent || 100 per cent) was admirable riding shotgun to number 52. That defence pair failed to allow a high danger chance at 5v5 all evening. Neither did Kadri (74.34 per cent || 100 per cent), Huberdeau (66.08 per cent || 100 per cent), and Pospisil (70.86 per cent || 100 per cent). The Zary (75.71 per cent || 68.03 per cent) line had the most high danger looks with over seven for the group. That’s two of the top nine forward groupings that were pressing hard, giving Calgary a real advantage.

xG Breakdown –

xGF% – Ryan Lomberg (32.56 per cent) fought twice in this match so he needs to have a mention. The fourth line did average fourth line things. Duehr (22.23 per cent) had one good opportunity, but he was moving too fast to stop on the puck – maybe next time. Mikael Backlund (16.92 per cent) and his line were pressed back by the Canucks at 5v5. Usually Backlund can push the play/chances to 50/50 with regularity but the number of games he is finishing below 30 per cent is starting to concern me. I’m used to talking about how automatic he is – I want to see that return.

Game Flow –

Game Score –

NHL GameScore Impact Card for Calgary Flames on 2024-12-31: pic.twitter.com/syPvEwWLJx

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 1, 2025

Shot Heatmap –

In The Crease – Dustin Wolf, once again, stopped everything at 5v5. The opposition seemingly always needs some sort of aid to beat this young man because without an advantage it’s extremely difficult to defeat him. Calgary does a tremendous job of limiting opportunities and blocking as many as they can. Play like that sure makes it easier on the goaltending – it’s a contributing reason to why both Wolf and Dan Vladar have quality stats this season. Against the Canucks Wolf faced 1.69 expected goals against and only got beat by a deflection while shorthanded. Brilliant.