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After a productive holiday weekend with wins on back-to-back outings, the Calgary Flames returned home on Tuesday evening for their third game in four nights.
Facing a rested Chicago Blackhawks team, the Flames played a solid if imperfect 60 minutes of hockey. They were shaky at times in their own end, but they battled en route to a 3-1 victory over the Blackhawks to extend their season-opening streak to four wins.

The rundown

The opening period was pretty back and forth, which each club getting their looks.
But Flames opened the scoring in the latter stages of the period, off a really nice shift from the fourth line. Ryan Lomberg entered the Chicago zone off the rush and made a nifty spin move, which seemed to open up some space and create chaos. The puck cycled around in the offensive zone. The initial shot from the point ricocheted off the end boards and was collected by Matt Coronato, who jammed the puck past Petr Mrazek to give the Flams a 1-0 lead.
10 seconds after Coronato scored, the Blackhawks tied things up. Off a face-off win in the Calgary zone, Nick Foligno deflected a Seth Jones point shot past Dustin Wolf to make it a 1-1 hockey game.
First period shots were 10-9 Blackhawks. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 12-9 Flames (high-dangers were 7-1 Flames).
The Flames had two power plays in the second period. One was quite bad, and Wolf had to be more sharp and involved than a goaltender probably should be on his teamā€™s man advantage.
Their subsequent power play was much better. With Connor Bedard in the penalty box for a slashing call on Wolf, and Wolf on the bench for the extra attacker on another delayed penalty, Andrei Kuzmenko tipped a Jonathan Huberdeau shot past Mrazek to give the Flames a 2-1 lead.
Second period shots were 12-11 Blackhawks. Five-on-five scoring chances were 9-8 Blackhawks (high-dangers were 2-2).
The third period featured a Chicago push, as the Flames seemed to lose some steam and Chicago tried to get the tying goal.
Chicago pulled Mrazek for the extra attacker late and the Flames were stranded for awhile trying to defend in their own zone. But a puck got deflected out of the Flamesā€™ zone and Coronato rushed through the neutral zone, beat out the Chicago defender to the loose puck, and scored the empty-netter to give the Flames a 3-1 lead. That held as the final score.
Third period shots were 10-6 Blackhawks. Five-on-five scoring chances were 8-2 Blackhawks (high-dangers were 1-0 Blackhawks).

Why the Flames won

This may have been the sloppiest game the Flames have played this season. They seemed to work fairly hard, but the execution wasnā€™t quite there ā€“ a lot of passes that missed their mark or shots that werenā€™t quite on target. Despite that, though, the hard work is what separated them from their opponents, and they were able to grind out a close victory.

Red Warrior

Letā€™s give it to Wolf, who was really sharp and the most noteworthy player in red. And stick-taps to the fourth line of Ryan Lomberg, Justin Kirkland and Coronato, who were easily the best unit of skaters for the Flames.

Turning point

Itā€™s a bit of a cliche, but this was a close game that was a saw-off at five-on-five and special teams was the difference. Take away a good Calgary power play in the second period and this couldā€™ve been a much different hockey game.

This and that

Jake Bean dressed for his 200th NHL game.
During the first intermission, the Flames replayed the first portion of the Columbus/Florida game, featuring the two teams paying tribute to the late, great Johnny Gaudreau.

Up next

The Flames (4-0-0) are headed into a bit of a light part of their schedule. They have an off day on Wednesday, then prepare to visit the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.