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Instant Reaction: Flames tame Mammoth to kick off final week of season
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryan Pike
Apr 12, 2026, 23:39 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 returned home from a lengthy six game road trip on Sunday night… and immediately began a three game home stand against the Utah Mammoth. The Flames were pretty solid in this one, scoring first and managing the game pretty well.
The Flames tamed the Mammoth with a 4-1 victory to begin their final week of the season.

The rundown

The Flames looked really, really energetic in the first period, and their energy and speed gave the Mammoth some challenges.
7:06 into the first period, the Flames got on the scoreboard first. Matt Coronato made a smart play, chasing down a puck off a dump-in as Mammoth netminder Vitek Vanecek went to play the puck. Vanecek seemed to fan on his attempted pass and scrambled back towards his crease, while Coronato retrieved the loose puck behind the net and scored on a wrap-around. That gave the Flames a 1-0 lead.
Around 1:21 later, the Flames doubled their lead. Zach Whitecloud, at the left point, fired the puck around the boards in the Utah zone. Zayne Parekh, at the right point, zipped down to retrieve the puck in the corner and fired it on net. The puck went off Vanecek’s pads, off Connor Zary’s skate and into the Utah net. (The play was reviewed by the Situation Room in Toronto, and it was determined to not have been kicked into the net.) Thus, the Flames led 2-0.
The Flames had a couple of power plays in the back half of the first period, but they couldn’t bury any chances.
First period shots were 14-4 Flames.
The second period was kinda clunky, with many icings, missed passes, and generally several indicators that both teams were fatigued and playing on the second half of a back-to-back. Neither team scored any goals.
Second period shots were 11-4 Mammoth.
Midway through the third period, the Flames got a bit of insurance… the hard way. Blake Coleman chased down an errant pass in the Utah zone and blew a tire while battling for position. He slid into the crease and hit his head on the post as he slid into the net and Mikael Backlund skated in as the trailing player and nudged the puck over the line into the net to give the Flames a 3-0 lead. (The Mammoth challenged the play for goalie interference, but the goal stood.)
The Flames made it 4-0 a little bit later, with Aydar Suniev gaining the zone, then finding Brayden Pachal entering the zone as the trailer and blasting a point shot past Vanecek to make it 4-0. The assist was Suniev’s first NHL point.
The Mammoth spoiled Dustin Wolf’s shutout bid midway through the period, though, with Lawson Crouse firing a nice shot past Wolf to cut the home side’s lead to 4-1.
The Flames held on for the victory.
Third period shots were 14-6 Mammoth.

Why the Flames won

This was a weird game, featuring two teams that played in another city on Saturday and then travelled to Calgary for this game. While this was a bit of a scrambly three periods of ice hockey we’ll give the Flames credit: they made plays when plays were available to make, and they were far more opportunistic than the Mammoth.

Red Warrior

Let’s give a stick-tap to Brayden Pachal for a three point outing. Honourable mention to Olli Maatta in his first game against his old team.

Turning point

The Flames scored pairs of goals in fairly rapid succession. But with the way this game went, the Flames getting out to a 2-0 lead in the first period was going to be tough for Utah to rally back from.

This and that

Dustin Wolf started in net. Yan Kuznetsov was absent due to an injury and Matvei Gridin due to an illness, which led to a bunch of new forward lines and new defensive pairings, including Zayne Parekh playing on his off-side on a pairing with Zach Whitecloud.
As expected, the Flames had a tribute video for MacKenzie Weegar – formerly of the Flames and currently of the Mammoth – during a first period TV timeout.

After Burner

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

Up next

The Flames (33-38-9) are back at it on Tuesday evening when they host the Colorado Avalanche.

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