logo
FlamesNation has no direct affiliation to the Calgary Flames, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Instant Reaction: Flames fall short in the Shark Tank
alt
Photo credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Dec 17, 2025, 00:42 EST
Comments
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 headed to the Bay Area on Tuesday evening, hoping to win both games on their Dads Trip. Unfortunately, the Flames just couldn’t get enough pucks past Sharks netminder Yaroslav Askarov en route to a 6-3 road loss to San Jose.

The rundown

62 seconds into this game, the Sharks opened the scoring. Macklin Celebrini made a superb cross-zone pass to John Klingberg, and Klingberg’s one-timer beat Dustin Wolf to put San Jose up 1-0.
Some in-zone confusion led to the second Sharks goal. A puck was dumped in from the neutral zone and the back linesmate waved off the icing. The Flames seemingly did not notice that at all, which allowed Barclay Goodrow to zip into the zone and put the puck past Wolf to make it a 2-0 Sharks lead.
The Flames got on the board a bit later off a really nice passing sequence, teeing up a slapper from Blake Coleman that beat Yaroslav Askarov to cut the Sharks lead to 2-1.
Adam Klapka sent Ryan Lomberg and Rasmus Andersson in on an odd-man rush. Lomberg opted to shoot, beating Askarov to tie the game at 2-2.
But in the waning moments of the first, the Sharks got their lead back. Celebrini’s shot was stopped by Wolf… mostly. The puck trickled out of his pads and landed in the blue paint, where Goodrow slid it into the net to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead.
First period shots were 9-9. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 11-9 Sharks and high-danger scoring chances were 6-2 Sharks.
Neither team scored in the second period, though the game was pretty back and forth… and got pretty chippy as the period wore on.
First period shots were 8-7 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 11-7 Sharks and high-danger scoring chances were 4-2 Sharks.
The Flames pressed early to try to tie up the game. However, Celebrini took advantage of a loose breakout attempt, intercepted the puck, made a sweet spin move around Kevin Bahl, and then chipped the puck on net. The puck blooped off Wolf, off Celebrini and in to give the Sharks a 4-2 lead.
The Sharks got some more insurance after William Eklund attempted a wrap-around off a face-off win. The puck blooped to the side of the net for Tyler Toffoli, who fired the puck past Wolf to give the Sharks a 5-2 lead.
Nazem Kadri came off the bench, received a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau and, with Klapka screening, fired the puck past Askarov to cut the lead back to 5-3.
The Flames pulled Wolf for the extra attacker with 3:19 left. The Flames couldn’t generate enough, though, and Celebrini added an empty-netter to make it a 6-3 final.

Why the Flames lost

We can talk all about how the Sharks have Macklin Celebrini and…. yeah, he’s amazing. But the difference here seemed to be the Flames’ power play. If they had scored on any of their advantages, this is a much different hockey game.

Red Warrior

Ryan Lomberg got his first goal of the season and his fourth line group was really effective. We’ll give him the nod.

Turning point

Goodrow’s late first period goal gave the Sharks a lead heading into the intermission, and the Flames were chasing for the remainder of the proceedings.

This and that

This was the 1,100th NHL game both Flames captain Mikael Backlund and Sharks forward Jeff Skinner.

After Burner

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

Up next

The Flames (13-17-4) are headed home. They host the Seattle Kraken at the Saddledome on Thursday night.

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

News

Breaking News