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Flames get hard-fought point against Jets, but lose Honzek to injury
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Nov 16, 2025, 08:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 16, 2025, 03:01 EST
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The Calgary Flames played a pretty solid 65 minutes of hockey on Saturday night, with the shootout proving to be the difference in a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
Here are a few stories coming out of the Flames’ home shootout loss.

Sam Honzek injured in second period

Roughly seven minutes into the second period, Sam Honzek collided with Mikael Backlund at the Jets blueline. Backlund got up quickly and rejoined the play, but Honzek got up more slowly and gingerly… and went down the tunnel to the locker room area.
Following the game, Backlund walked the assembled media through his perspective on the sequence.
“You know, the puck was spinning. I was trying to settle, and I saw him coming, and I was trying to chip it in,” said Backlund. “I thought he was going to go get it, and I think he thought he was going to stay on side, and, yeah, just misread each other. And, unfortunately, he had to leave the game.”
Honzek did not return to the game. Flames head coach Ryan Huska noted that the team will find out more about his status when he’s re-evaluated on Sunday. Considering how well Honzek had been playing for the Flames, it’s a potentially big blow to the group.
“Yeah, that’s a tough one,” said Huska. “I mean, he’s done a lot of great things for our team. So, as I said, we’ll see what happens with him [Sunday]. But he brings a speed element to our team. And it’s an important aspect that I feel like helps drive a line when he’s on the ice. He became a really good penalty killer for us. So he’s come a long way in the short period of time this year. So, again, hopefully we get some decent news [Sunday].”

The line blender

Heading into this game, the Flames had found some pretty consistent forward lines. But Honzek’s injury, opening up a spot on the club’s tough-minutes trio with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, created a bit of a line blender for much of the remainder of the game.
Huska walked through a bit of the process of trail and error in crafting new lines mid-game.
“Well, it started with Farabee with Coles and Backs because he’s kind of the other guy that we look to to be a hard guy to play against and shut down other teams’ top lines. And then he ended up bouncing around a bit because Naz and Joel have had some pretty good chemistry offensively as well. So we were looking for that goal that we had to have. So we put him back there a few times. And then the last point of that, I guess, is Adam Klapka has done a good job lately of going to the net hard. When you need a goal, he’s got to be a presence for us. And again, when you look at the goal that we did score, he was the guy that was standing right at the front of the net to allow the rebound to go to Matt.”
For the remainder of the game, Backlund and Coleman cycled through playing with Joel Farabee, Jonathan Huberdeau and Connor Zary. Early in the third period, lines seemed to settle down, with Farabee and Nazem Kadri being joined by Adam Klapka, Backlund, Coleman and Zary playing mostly together, and Huberdeau, Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato playing as a unit. (Ryan Lomberg and Rory Kerins were largely the odd men out in third period.)

The power play finally scores

Heading into Saturday’s game, the Flames’ power play had not scored a single goal in the month of November. So the game-tying marker, scored by Coronato with 1:14 left on the clock, must have felt really good to that group.
It was their first power play goal since the first period of the Flames’ Oct. 30 shootout loss in Ottawa. Since that Coronato power play in Ottawa, the man advantage unit had failed to convert on 18 consecutive opportunities.
Huska noted that the key goal at a key time could give the power play a confidence boost.
“They want to be able to help the team win as much as any unit on the ice,” said Huska. “That’s for sure. It’s a given. So when they do score a goal, they’ll go home feeling better about themselves. And tomorrow when they get up in the morning, now they have something to build off of. That’s kind of the way it goes. Power plays always go [through] ups and downs. Now ours has had a really cold snap for a while here. So the challenge is to make sure that we’re approaching it with the right attitude. And because at the end of the night with the close games that were in your special teams are always the difference in games. And a lot of tonight’s were that way too.”
The Flames return to action on Tuesday night on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks.

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