The Calgary Flames played a good first period on Friday night when they hosted the Washington Capitals. They just couldn’t follow it up. After opening the scoring with a power play goal, the Flames struggled to generate much offensively en route to a 3-1 loss to the Capitals to run their home losing streak to three games (dating back to the Rasmus Andersson trade).

The first period was pretty even and pretty energetic, with the Flames doing a nice job generating some chances.

On a power play, the Flames opened the scoring 6:09 into the game. Morgan Frost rushed back to break up a shorthanded rush for the Capitals, then the play went the other way and Frost used Rasmus Sandin as a screen to disguise his shot, beating Logan Thompson to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

First period shots were 16-8 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 12-10 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 6-5 Capitals.

The Capitals dominated the second period offensively, and they managed to tie the game, too.

The Flames iced the puck several minutes into the period and they were stuck with tired players on the ice and a long change. They managed to clear the zone and get a partial change, but John Carlson threw the puck towards the net-front, where it bounced off a tired Yan Kuznetsov’s skate and went right to Hendrix Lapierre parked at the post to Devin Cooley’s right. Lapierre put it into the net to tie the game at 1-1. (Kuznetsov, MacKenzie Weegar and Matvei Gridin were stranded on the ice for 1:34 apiece.)

Flames did not register a shot in the second period until 16:23 into the period, making it 19:18 between shots dating back to their prior shot late in the first period.

Second period shots were 17-4 Capitals. 5v5 scoring chances were 18-6 Capitals and high-danger scoring chances were 6-5 Capitals.

The Flames hung around in the third period, with Cooley making some good stops.

Midway through the period, though, the Capitals took the lead. Justin Sourdif muscled Brayden Pachal off the puck deep in the Calgary zone, then found Tom Wilson in front of the net. Cooley made the initial stop, but Aliaksei Protas jumped on the rebound and buried it, giving the visitors a 2-1 advantage.

The Flames tried to generate some chances in the back half of the period, but just couldn’t get anything past Thompson. Alex Ovechkin scored an empty-netter with 51.8 seconds left to ice this one.

The Capitals won 3-1.

Third period shots were 13-6 Capitals. 5v5 scoring chances were 10-5 Capitals and high-danger scoring chances were 3-2 Capitals.

The Flames looked pretty good in the first period and played fast and looked connected. Whether it’s something the Capitals did or the Flames stopped doing, man, the Flames really struggled with breakouts and neutral zone rushes in the second and third periods. As a consequence, they really couldn’t get much going offensively and were on their heels for the balance of this game.

Devin Cooley tried his best, but he was facing a ton of rubber in this game.

Again: Devin Cooley tried his best, but he was facing a ton of rubber in this game.

The Flames went 19:14 between shots on goal, stretching from late in the first period until late in the second period. The Capitals really took over the game in that stretch.

Devin Cooley started for the Flames. Jonathan Huberdeau returned from a one game injury absence. As a result, the forward lines were shuffled a bit – Huberdeau-Kadri-Coronato, Pospisil-Zary-Gridin, Sharangovich-Backlund-Farabee and Lomberg-Frost-Klapka.

Ryan Lomberg and Matvei Gridin each played two shifts in the third period.

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

The Flames (21-25-5) host the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.

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