Sunday night’s game between the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers won’t be immortalized anywhere for future generations to study and fawn over. It was three periods of pretty clunky hockey between two teams playing their second game in as many days.

But for the Flames, looking for a way to salvage some points at the tail-end of a four game road trip, it was a game they needed to have to retain some daylight in their season. They battled their way through an ugly game of hockey to beat the Flyers by a 2-1 score.

Neither team scored in the opening period, in what was a pretty back and forth frame. The Flyers had more chances, but the Flames did a good job of clogging up the lanes and preventing the Flyers from hitting the net.

First period shots were 10-3 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 5-2 Flyers and high-danger scoring chances were 2-1 Flames.

The Flames had an early penalty kill in the second period, but they managed to prevent the Flyers from registering a shot on net. Right after the Flames’ penalty expired, the Flames got on the board. Jonathan Huberdeau entered the zone off the rush and notiicng a crowd of players in the slot area, he opted to shoot. The puck seemed to glance off Cam York and past netminder Aleksei Kolosov to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

Second period shots were 7-6 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 5-5 and high-danger scoring chances were 4-0 Flyers.

The Flyers pressed in the third period, including a wild sequence six minutes into the period that featured a scrambly save by Wolf and three shot blocks by MacKenzie Weegar.

A little later, the Flames got some insurance. Off an offensive zone face-off win, Huberdeau deflected a Weegar point shot past Kolosov to make it a 2-0 lead for the Flames.

The Flyers kept pressing and made the game close late in regulation, though. Off an offensive zone face-off win of their own, Travis Konecny fired a quick shot that beat Dustin Wolf to cut the Calgary lead to 2-1.

The Flyers pulled Kolosov for the extra attacker and pressed late in this game. But the Flames held on to win 2-1.

Third period shots were 9-4 Flyers.

The Flames did what they could to play their preferred style: tight-checking and low event. They seemed to do a good job minimizing the proverbial “big mistakes” that have characterized their game of late. And because of that, they stayed out of the box, rolled their lines, and did their thing.

It was not a picturesque example of this great sport, but it was the precise type of game they needed to have given the stretch of results they’ve had recently.

We’ll give this one to Wolf, who had a good bounce-back outing after a rough first period against Nashville. But let’s also give kudos to Weegar and Huberdeau.

That early third period sequence with three Weegar shot blocks was pretty huge. It was arguably the biggest breakdown that the Flames had all game, but they did what they could to collapse down and bail their goaltender out. Shortly after that, they got their insurance goal that held up as the eventual game-winner.

Zayne Parekh and Connor Zary returned to the lineup after being scratches against Ottawa and Nashville. Parekh played his 10th game of the season, officially hitting the start button on his entry level contract.

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

The Flames (3-9-2) are headed home. They’re back in action on Wednesday night when they commemorate Nazem Kadri’s 1,000th NHL game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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