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 played pretty well on Saturday night against Detroit, but they didn’t get the bounces. On Sunday in Seattle, the Flames played pretty well… and they got the bounces. The Flames grabbed two key points with a gutsy win in a back-to-back situation, via a 3-2 win over the Kraken.

The rundown

The Flames had a pretty good first period. And they got rewarded by the hockey gods, too.
Seattle earned a power play midway through the period. Jaden Schwartz scored early on off a rebound, but it was challenged by the Flames for goalie interference. Turns out that Schwartz was in the blue paint and made contact with Dan Vladar’s stick, and the officials judged that to be interference, so the goal was waved off.
A little later, the Flames got onto the board with a nice passing play and a nice shot. Yegor Sharangovich sent Morgan Frost into the Kraken zone against three or four home defenders. But Frost had a bit of space, so he skated to the top of the slot and fired the puck glove-side on Joey Daccord to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
A bit later, Brayden Pachal stepped into Andre Burakovsky in the neutral zone. Jared McCann opted to scrap with Pachal for the (clean) hit, and that gave the Flames a power play.
On the resulting power play, Sharangovich went for a skate, entered the zone, went to shoot the puck… and kinda whiffed on it. His whiffed shot, though, beat a sprawling Daccord through his legs to give the Flames a 2-0 lead. On the sequence, Jamie Oleksiak was also called for slashing – he whacked Sharangovich as the puck was going in. Seattle challenged for goalie interference – Sharangovich made contact while swiping at the puck after his whiffed on it – but the goal stood, as the officials felt that was him trying to play the puck rather than interfering.
The Flames received a full two minutes of a two man advantage off that sequence – Oleksiak’s tripping minor and the delay-of-game for the failed challenge – and they used it well. After some nice passing around the zone, Jonathan Huberdeau scored on a one-timer to make it 3-0 Flames.
First period shots were 18-8 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 8-3 Flames (high-danger chances were 3-2 Flames).
The Flames faded a bit during the second period. They were sharp in the first 10 minutes and seemed to lose their energy a bit, and the Kraken pushed back and got a bunch of good chances in the second half of the period.
With Jake Bean caught up ice, Schwartz and Kaapo Kakko faced MacKenzie Weegar on a two-on-one. Kakko scored off Schwartz’s feed to cut the Flames’ lead to 3-1.
Second period shots were 12-11 Kraken. Five-on-five scoring chances were 14-5 Kraken (high-dangers were 5-3 Kraken).
The Kraken kept pushing in the third period in an effort to chip away at the Flames’ lead.
Seattle cut the Flames’ lead to 3-2 off a face-off win in the Calgary zone off an icing. A McCann shot glanced off Brandon Tanev and beat Vladar to make it a one goal game.
Seattle kept pushing and pulled Daccord for the extra attacker, but their push was defused by a high-sticking minor late in the game. Vladar made a save in the dying seconds, and the Flames held on for the 3-2 victory.
Third period shots were 11-6 Kraken. Five-on-five scoring chances were 8-6 Flames (high-danger chances were 3-2 Flames).

Why the Flames won

The Flames were really good for the first 30 minutes of this game and managed to capitalize on their scoring chances. Then they got enough saves from then on out to win. It was a pretty solid road game, all things considered.

Red Warrior

We’re giving it to Dan Vladar. This was his first win since Dec. 10, and his first win in six attempts in scheduled loss situations. He wasn’t perfect, but he made the saves the Flames needed him to make at key moments.

Turning point

What a weird sequence it was in the first period. Sharangovich scored, then they drew two penalties off the sequence, then they scored again. In the span of 1:23, the Flames completely grabbed hold of the hockey game.

This and that

Dan Vladar started in net. Kevin Rooney and Daniil Miromanov dressed after being scratched against Detroit.
This was just the fifth time this season where the Flames have scored multiple power play goals. They scored their second five-on-three goal this season.
The Flames are 7-for-8 on coach’s challenges this season; they’re 2-for-3 when having their goals challenged.

Up next

The Flames (26-19-7) are headed home. They host the Toronto Maple Leafs, an obscure team from eastern Canada, on Tuesday night.

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