After a win on Thursday night in the Bay Area, the Calgary Flames trekked south within California to face the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday evening. And what resulted was three periods that felt a bit chippy and a bit sloppy, at times looking a bit more like pre-season hockey than a clash between two divisional rivals in late February.

The Flames just couldn’t get their offence going and dropped a tight 2-0 loss to the Kings.

Neither team scored in the first period. The period was pretty back and forth, with a bunch of decent chances but few really high-quality ones in either direction.

Zayne Parekh set up Matt Coronato with a nice pass for a great scoring chance, but Coronato couldn’t capitalize.

First period shots were 14-13 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 16-11 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 4-3 Kings.

After another back and forth frame, the Kings scored 15:35 into the second period. The Kings had some zone time and a chance at the side of the Flames’ net by Quinton Byfield led to a scramble out front and a couple chances for Alex Laferriere. His second shot, with a few players in road sweaters puck watching, got past Dustin Wolf to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.

Second period shots were 15-11 Kings. 5v5 scoring chances were 16-11 Kings and high-danger scoring chances were 9-5 Kings.

The third period was pretty back and forth, with the Flames pushing to try to get an equalizer. It didn’t quite work out, unfortunately. Adrian Kempe scored on the empty net with 37.3 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Kings a 2-0 victory.

Third period shots were 9-5 Kings.

The Flames were perfectly fine. They didn’t give up a ton offensively. They didn’t take any penalties. They just couldn’t generate enough offensively. It was a bit of a grind of a game for their in that regard.

Dustin Wolf was the best player in red and white. Just like he was in San Jose on Thursday.

In a one-goal game, Alex Laferriere was a bridge too far.

The Flames shuffled their lines a bit in the third period. Blake Coleman joined Mikael Backlund and Matt Coronato, which moved Yegor Sharangovich to a line with Morgan Frost and Matvei Gridin. Meanwhile, Adam Klapka joined Nazem Kadri and Joel Farabee, while Connor Zary joined John Beecher and Martin Pospisil.

This was the first game all season for the Flames where there were zero penalties. The last Flames games with zero penalties called on either team was Feb. 25, 2021, a 6-1 road loss to Ottawa.

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

The Flames (24-28-6) headed down the highway to face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.

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