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Beyond the Boxscore: Flames give start to finish quality performance in first victory of season
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Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Flash Stevens
Oct 14, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 14, 2026, 10:15 EDT
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The Calgary Flames kept the pressure up from the start and handily earned their first win of the season over the Anaheim Ducks.
CF% – 55.01% || SCF% – 60.97% || HDCF% – 62.55% || xGF% – 61.14%
It’s a Team Game – A recurring theme so far this season is the Flames ability to show up and start attacking early. Matt Coronato seems to always be trying to shovel the puck either towards the net or toward a teammate in the slot and he does it from his first shift. The Flames emphasis on attacking the crease has been quite noticeable, this one did not lead to goals in the crease, but second chance opportunities did factor into Adam Klapka’s goal. Offensively they were strong, but they also took advantage of a banged up Ducks team to limit the chances again pretty well. Major gaffs like the Simon Nemec turnover did lead to a goal against, but the Flames never let that get them into a rut. They kept their heads down, kept up with the game plan from start to finish, and eventually it paid off. A solid game worthy of the victory. 
Corsi King – Ryan Strome (78.79 CF%) seeing 28 shot attempts during his ice time was best on the team. He’s currently on the wing, but it hasn’t hurt much at all. Martin Pospisil (79.76%) is gaining some traction up the middle, and it doesn’t hurt to have an experienced veteran at the position next to him in practice and games. This is the second go-round with Pospisil at centre, the first being last year – it didn’t last. I did like the potential of him there, with the combination of his speed and tenacity. It’s a fun and intriguing story to follow early in the season. 
Under Pressure – 
Taken By Chance – I loved two defencemen in particular tonight. Simon Nemec (74.65 SCF% // 69.06 HDCF%), even with the turnover, continues to be exceptional at creating offence. He’s getting more settled every game and some of his plays are starting to connect. I also thought Yan Kuznetsov (65.46% // 68.49%) was very active in the attack. Multiple times he was involved in a continuous attack on the Ducks goaler, contributing his own quality shot attempts along the way. The whole team really played well, and it was led with a strong performance from the defence. 
xG Breakdown –
xGF% – Aydar Suniev (54.20 xGF%) with two points really made an impact in this game. I loved how he found the open space in-between Ducks defenders for his goal. Despite the power play ending he still found space between everyone to hammer home a confident second career goal. Adam Klapka (41.38%) kept the emotions up with a scrap, he scored a beautiful goal as well from the upper slot. One player I want to start to see some production from – Joel Farabee (51.86%). He’s yet to really make an impactful stamp on any of the games so far. Usually I’m all over Yegor Sharangovich (68.69%) at this point, but he’s been really good so far.  
Game Flow –
Shot Heatmap –
In The Crease – The Flames really needed a solid goaltending performance and Wolf finally delivered. No goals against at 5v5 despite Anaheim earning 2.16 expected goals worth of chances. The breakaway was clear cut from the red line on while Carlsson’s came up a man. They weren’t all easy either – Wolf had to showcase his sharp athleticism a few times to keep a win within reach. You could feel the effects of this in the third period as the Flames pressed hard, really wanting to eliminate that zero win goose egg. Wolf surely did his part. 
The Goals –
Flash’s 3 Stars –
1) Aydar Suniev
2) Ryan Strome
3) Simon Nemec
(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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