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Beyond the Boxscore: Flames spring ahead with goals galore in 5-4 victory over Hurricanes
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Flash Stevens
Mar 8, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 8, 2026, 10:44 EDT
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The Calgary Flames turned the page in a big way on Saturday night, with the ‘Dome rockin’ they sent the Carolina Hurricanes home with a 5-4 loss.
CF% – 46.5%|| SCF% – 45.82%|| HDCF% – 54.86%|| xGF% – 48.34%
It’s a Team Game – Astonished looks all around as the Flames – who traded their top two defenceman and their number one centre away – absolutely lit up the scoresheet for the first time in a way they hadn’t for about two months. It did not start that way, with Canadian Olympian Seth Jarvis scoring very early to make this seem like it was going to go the same way as Dallas & Ottawa this week. They would get through a Hurricanes dominated first only to have the new guy – Ryan Strome – scorer his first as a Flame in the first 30 seconds of the second period. That goal, coupled with another couple of quick ones, regained momentum for the Flames. They rode that into what would be a wild, back and forth third period that saw the score go from 3-1 at the start to a 5-4 Flames win in the end. Some pretty goals, quality saves, and good vibes as Calgary officially kicks off their rebuild era. 
Corsi King – Morgan Frost (63.66 per cent) has an unchallenged claim to the current number 1 offensive centre spot. Backlund (36.97 per cent) is still going to take the hard match-ups, especially on home ice with last change, so Frost needs to be a guy that can step up. The older brothers are gone, you’ve got the keys to Dad’s old GTX, time to get driving. You still have some vets kicking around – Blake Coleman (62.78 per cent) tickled the twine again for the 14th time – so it’s not a complete pressure cooker, but more is certainly expected of that next wave of players in their late 20s. 
Under Pressure –
Taken By Chance – So it wasn’t just Morgan Frost (76.76 SCF% // 100 HDCF% // 8 High danger chances) who stepped up. With all the leaders gone Joel Farabee (71.43 per cent // 100 per cent // 8 high danger chances) was given the “A” to wear and made it look good. His eventual game winning breakaway goal – deking Bussi and going backhand roof – was an absolutely gorgeous goal. He and Frost drove play towards the Hurricanes zone all night long. Shoutout to another new guy too in Olli Maatta (58.36 per cent // 100 per cent // 7 high danger chances). Maatta found himself a beautiful assists as well and really brought his best effort. He helped make losing Zach Whitecloud (0 per cent // 0 per cent) to injury in the first period a survivable loss. 
xG Breakdown –
xGF% – I do think we saw an improved, more confident version of Zayne Parekh (41.06 per cent) in this game. His passes were making better contact, he was making more moves at the blue line, and genuinely looking more poised with the puck on his stick than he was back in October. The keys to the power play are entirely in his pocket, and he delivered – generating a goal after walking the line off the face-off and finding a seam to get the puck into the slot. He had a positive real goal differential (1 for, 0 against) at 5v5 as well. There’s still a whole lot more in there, but with the team going into rebuild mode there’s going to be significant time to figure it out. 
Game Flow –
Game Score –
Shot Heatmap –
In The Crease – 5v5 Dustin Wolf was, once again, excellent. 2.48 expected goals against with just two goals against. The later goals game with the goaler pulled. Some nights he stands on his head and gets no run support, so these nights where he’s still great but lets some power play goals slip through it’s cool to still get the win. It won’t normally be like this – I’m not magically expecting the Flames to start averaging over 3 goals a game after 2 straight years of struggling to reach just 2 themselves, but it’s a bit of a nice gift for your goaler to show them they don’t always have to be perfect to earn the W. 
The Goals –
Flash’s 3 Stars –
1a) Joel Farabee
1b) Morgan Frost
3) Olli Määttä
HM: Ryan Strome
(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)
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