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Instant Reaction: Flames finally get two points after rematch with the Ducks
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Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Oct 14, 2026, 00:30 EDT
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Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below! 
After two really good periods (and an iffy third) on Saturday night, the Calgary Flames headed to sunny California to face the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday in the back half of their home-and-home set.
The Flames played another pretty good, albeit imperfect, game of hockey. They had a lead, gave the lead away, and then battled back en route to a 4-2 road win over the Ducks to finally snap their season-starting losing skid.

The rundown

The Flames got off to a good start, registering six of the first seven shots in the game and carrying play for much of the first 10-12 minutes.
The Flames opened the scoring off a nice fourth line shift, which saw Adam Klapka blast a puck on the Anaheim net while a teammate provided a moving screen in front of Lukas Dostal. Klapka’s marker gave the Flames a 1-0 lead.
Things got a bit chippy after that, though, and after A.J. Greer took a roughing minor, the Flames took three consecutive minors: Maxim Tsyplakov for slashing (on a power play), Yegor Sharangovich for slashing (during four-on-four) and Zayne Parekh for holding. The penalties sapped the Flames momentum and swung things towards Anaheim.
During a stretch of four-on-four, Simon Nemec turned the puck over and Anaheim’s Beckett Sennecke chased the loose puck down, raced down the ice and beat Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.
Later on, after Tsyplakov had left the box, the Flames were defending a five-on-four Ducks power play. Leo Carlsson took a feed from Mikael Granlund and fired it past Wolf to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.
After the game got away from them in the latter parts of the first period due to all those penalties, Flames did a good job of getting things back on track in the second period, rolling their lines and getting their legs moving.
The Ducks took a pair of minor penalties at once, giving the Flames a full two minute, two-man advantage. They generated four shots on goal… but no goals. But after the Ducks’ penalized players raced back to their zone, the Flames kept at it, and Ryan Strome found Aydar Suniev all alone in the slot, and Suniev one-timed his pass past Dostal to tie the game back up at 2-2.
Both teams went into the third period looking to win the period to win the game.
The Flames managed to out-battle the Ducks and took the lead in the late stages of the third period. The Flames had a near-miss on a deflection on Dostal, then the Ducks nearly got a breakaway chance that was broken up by Zach Whitecloud, then Martin Pospisil went in all by himself against the Ducks’ defenders. He pump-faked a shot at the top of the zone, then skated down to the face-off dot to Dostal’s right and fired a wrister that eluded Dostal to give the Flames a 3-2 lead.
With Dostal on the Anaheim bench for the extra attacker, Sharangovich added an empty-netter to give the Flames a 4-2 win.

Why the Flames won

The Flames bent, but they did not break. They did not play a flawless game. They got into penalty trouble, which led to Anaheim grabbing the lead. But the Flames did a very nice job regrouping in the second period and carried that momentum over to the third period.
They got a few nice offensive efforts at key moments, and it was enough to get them that elusive one extra goal that got them past the Ducks. It was a pretty good game for the red team overall, and gives them something to continue building on.

Red Warrior

Aydar Suniev had his first NHL multi-point game. And not only was it “multi-point,” but he scored the game-tying goal and had the first assist on the go-ahead goal.
Stick-taps to Dustin Wolf, who was sharp, Ryan Strome, who had a team-leading seven shots, Martin Pospisil, who had a great goal and was strong at the face-off dot, and Adam Klapka, who had a goal and a fight.

Turning point

It’s hard to ague with the great individual effort Martin Pospisil made on the go-ahead goal in the third period.

Flames lineup

The Flames looked like this against Anaheim:
Aydar Suniev – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich – Mikael Backlund [C] – Joel Farabee
Matvei Gridin – Martin Pospisil – Ryan Strome
Maxim Tsyplakov – Jonathan Castagna – Adam Klapka
Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec
Jake Middleton [A] – Zayne Parekh
Yan Kuznetsov – Zach Whitecloud [A]
Dustin Wolf started in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The healthy extras were Joel Hanley and Brennan Othmann. Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Honzek missed the game due to injury. It was literally the exact lineup they used on Saturday against Anaheim.

This and that

Ducks forward Roger McQueen made his NHL debut.
Adam Klapka fought Jeff Mallot in the second period.

After Burner

Join Mike Gould and myself right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames (1-5-0) are headed to Sin City. They visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.

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