On Sunday, the Seattle Kraken began their exhibition schedule with a veteran-laden roster at home. Their opponents were the visiting Calgary Flames, who brought along a pretty youthful lineup full of their top prospects and several key members of their minor league team, the Calgary Wranglers.
And the admittedly undermanned Flames beat Seattle handily. The Kraken had some shots and chances, but the Flames were energetic and opportunistic en route to a 6-1 pre-season victory at Climate Pledge Arena.
The rundown
The Flames opened the scoring a couple minutes in. Clark Bishop won a face-off back to Jake Bean at the point. Bean fired the puck on net and Bishop got the rebound and tucked it past Philipp Grubauer to make it 1-0 Flames. (Samuel Honzek used his size to box out a defender on the rebound, giving Bishop a clear lane.)
Five minutes later, some nice and simple “put the puck on net” play got the Flames a second goal. Dryden Hunt forechecked well and the puck ended up with Brayden Pachal at the point. He fired on net and the rebound bounced into the air, where Hunt bunted it on goal. Grubauer made the initial save but Matt Coronato got the rebound to make it 2-0 Flames.
A little later, a really nice rush passing sequence between Bishop, Honzek and Adam Klapka ended with a net-front redirect for Klapka to make it 3-0 Flames.
The Flames added to their lead midway through the second period. Coronato made a heck of a pass, throwing a back-hand dish across the zone to Jeremie Poirier, pinching in from the point. Poirier’s one-timer beat Grubauer to make it a 4-0 lead for the visitors.
The Kraken spoiled Dustin Wolf’s shutout bid early in the third period. Zayne Parekh lost the puck in his own zone during a corner battle, leading to an Oliver Bjorkstrand pass to the slot area where Nathan Villeneuve cranked a one-timer over Wolf’s shoulder to cut the Flames’ lead to 4-1.
But the Flames bounced back. Klapka rushed back to use his long reach and stick to dispel a Berkly Catton rush chance, and play went the other way. Honzek threw the puck on the Seattle net and Klapka jammed it past Ales Stezka to make it 5-1 Flames.
A little later, Coronato made another nice play to set up a goal. This time he entered the Kraken zone off the rush, threw on the brakes and threw a pass over to Martin Frk on the other wing. Frk’s shot beat Stezka to extend the Calgary lead to 6-1.
Why the Flames won
A year ago, a veteran-heavy Flames team started their exhibition schedule against a young Canucks team and wrecked them by a 10-0 score. At the time, we noted that you can only try to beat the team you’ve asked to beat.
Well, the Flames were asked to beat a Seattle team that pretty closely resembled their opening night version… and they did so. They got good goaltending when they needed it, and their offensive players made smart plays to score goals when the game was up for grabs.
If the mantra of the 2024-25 Flames is to be a long night at the office for their opponents, Sunday night was a good start.
Red Warrior
Six Flames had multi-point outings, but we’ll give the edge to Coronato, who scored a pretty gritty goal and followed it up with two really nice passes to set up teammates for goals.
A lot of players in red and white had nice games, though. Among them: Hunter Brzustewicz, Artem Grushnikov, Klapka, Honzek, Bishop, Poirier, Cole Schwindt and Wolf.
Turning point
The Kraken seemed really taken aback by the Flames’ hustle throughout the first period, and they never seemed to recover fully from that situation.
This and that
Here’s how the Flames lined up:
Pelletier – Rooney [A] – Hunt
Coronato – Schwindt – Frk
Honzek – Bishop – Klapka
Strömgren – Morton – Gridin
Bean [A] – Pachal [A]
Grushnikov – Parekh
Poirier – Brzustewicz
Dustin Wolf started for the Flames and went the distance, backed up by Connor Murphy.
Grushnikov fought Tucker Robertson after Robertson tripped William Strömgren dangerously in the neutral zone.
Up next
The Flames are back at it on Monday night! They face Edmonton in Edmonton and Edmonton in Calgary in a split squad game. The game in Calgary can be streamed on the Flames’ site and heard on Sportsnet 960, while the game in Edmonton can be seen on Oilers+ with no radio call.
After the split squad set, it’s likely that we’ll see the first cuts for the Flames as they start to trim down their camp roster.
