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Instant Reaction: Flames close out home schedule with shootout win over Vegas
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Apr 15, 2025, 23:57 EDTUpdated: Apr 16, 2025, 00:38 EDT
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Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Calgary Flames’ playoff fate was sealed before they hit the ice for the third period of Tuesday night’s home finale against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Flames had made enough miscues to be chasing in the game. But as has become tradition for games involving the red team, they managed to rally back in the final frame and make a game of it.
In a game that ended being of zero playoff consequence, the Flames battled to a 5-4 shootout win over Vegas.

The rundown

The Flames had some shifts in the Vegas zone in the first period, but they couldn’t quite translate those into strong scoring chances.
The Golden Knights opened the scoring just over five minutes into the period. The Flames won a defensive zone draw, but Nazem Kadri’s breakout attempt was intercepted by Pavel Dorofeyev. He ended up settling the puck down at the top of the circles and flinging it towards the net. It ended up taking a few bounces and beating Dustin Wolf – it looked like the last bounce was off MacKenzie Weegar – and that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead.
The Flames responded back five minutes later on a power play. With Tanner Pearson in the sin bin, the Flames won the offensive zone draw, passed it around the zone quickly, and then a Morgan Frost shot from a bad angle got through Ilya Samsonov to tie the game at 1-1.
A few minutes later, though, the Golden Knights got their lead back. After a puck blooped into the neutral zone, Brayden Pachal pinched to engage in a 50/50 puck battle… and the puck got past him. And then Jake Bean pinched on a 50/50 puck battle… and the puck was chipped by Ivan Barbashev off the wall to Nicolas Roy, who was skating through the zone. Kadri tried to chase down Roy, but the Vegas forward went top corner on Wolf to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.
Near the end of the first period, Vegas got some insurance. Rasmus Andersson corralled a dump-in by Vegas, but threw it up the wall where it was intercepted. The puck trickled down to Brandon Saad below the goal line and he wheeled out from behind the net – with some confusion over which Flames defender should pursue him – and he fired a nice pass into the slot area, where it was redirected by Tomas Hertl past Wolf to give Vegas a 3-1 edge.
First period shots were 11-9 Golden Knights. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 9-7 Flames (high-danger chances were 4-3 Golden Knights).
Neither team scored in the second period. Both clubs had some decent chances, but for the most part it was the Flames pushing and Vegas doing their best to avoid giving up strong chances.
Second period shots were 13-8 Golden Knights. Five-on-five scoring chances were 12-12 (high-danger chances were 6-3 Flames).
The Flames scored two quick ones early in the third period.
They carried a power play over from the very end of the second period, and Kadri got the puck near the net and fired it past Samsonov to cut the Vegas lead to 3-2.
On the very next shift, the Flames tied it up. The Flames carried the puck into the zone, Mikael Backlund cut across the zone at the top of the zone – above the circles – and fired the puck on net. There were a bunch of bodies in-between, and Backlund’s shot beat Samsonov to tie the game at 3-3.
Midway through the period, following a penalty kill, the Flames took the lead… briefly. Brayden Pachal fired the puck towards the net and it bonked in off Adam Klapka, parked at the far post, to make it 4-3 Flames.
But 11 seconds later, Vegas tied it up. And it was a weird goal. Brandon Saad fired the puck on Wolf and it bounced up and into the crease. Pachal attempted to push the loose puck underneath Wolf to freeze it… but Wolf was sliding in his crease, admittedly there was some contact with Saad and Bean battling in front, and the puck (and Wolf) slid over the line to tie the game at 4-4. (The Flames challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal stood.)
Third period shots were 15-10 Golden Knights. Five-on-five scoring chances were 9-7 Flames (high-danger chances were 5-1 Flames).
This game headed to overtime. Both teams got some really good looks – including a Vegas flurry of chances with Wolf doing the splits and losing his goal stick in the frenzy.
Overtime solved nothing, so this one required a shootout to determine a winner. Morgan Frost scored for the Flames, while Wolf didn’t allow any goals (on chances from Victor Olofsson, Doroveyev and Shea Theodore) and the Flames won 5-4.

Why the Flames won

Ultimately the shootout is a bit of a coin toss, but let’s give the Flames credit: they looked kind of off their game for the first half of this contest, and then they seemed to find their mojo in the back half of the game. (Especially the third period.) Their power play was dangerous. Their penalty kill was good. And while their five-on-five game was a bit wonky early on, that’s the part of their game that really improved over the course of this contest.

Red Warrior

Y’know what? We can’t really blame Wolf for any of the pucks that got behind him in this game. He made some big saves and gave his team a chance.

Turning point

You gotta feel for the Flames not being able to close this out in regulation, even just for the moral victory over a Vegas team that’s had their number this season. They finally got a lead in the third period, but a weird one gets into their net 11 seconds later. Oof.

This and that

Backlund’s goal was his 214th as a Flame, breaking a tie with Al MacInnis for sixth place on the franchise leaderboard. He’s one goal behind Lanny McDonald for fifth place.

Up next

The Flames (40-27-14) conclude their regular season schedule on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi

This article is a Presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the best warranty in the business with ten year warranties available. Check out the showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca

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