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Mistakes cost Flames in homestand finale loss to Kraken
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Jan 6, 2026, 08:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 6, 2026, 01:51 EST
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The Calgary Flames did a lot of good things on Monday night at home against the Seattle Kraken.
They scored first. They out-shot the Kraken in all three periods. They took just a single minor penalty. And for a team that is usually at its best when they keep things at five-on-five and are able to roll their forward lines and defensive pairings, all but 5:50 of the hockey game were played at even strength.
But as we’ve hammered home for the past season and a half, the Flames are a team that wins or loses hockey games by pretty thin margins. While they have some talented players in their pipeline, they don’t have the firepower yet to overpower their opposition. Or to out-score their mistakes.
And so on Monday night, as has happened many times over the past season and a half, their mistakes came back to haunt them.
The Flames opened the scoring off a nice rush play in the first period, ending with Adam Klapka depositing a rebound in the Kraken net. But three mistakes came back to haunt the Flames:
  • MacKenzie Weegar not getting enough of a clearing attempt, leading to a turnover and a Kraken goal by Jacob Melanson to tie the game at 1-1.
  • A turnover in the offensive zone and a gap in the Flames’ coverage off the rush led to a nifty redirect goal by Shane Wright to give Seattle a 2-1 lead.
  • Another gap in coverage off a Seattle zone entry, along with a really savvy pass from Kaapo Kakko, led to a goal from Vince Dunn to give Seattle a 3-1 lead.
The Kraken added a pair of late goals – one into an empty net, one past Dustin Wolf – to cement a 5-1 victory.
“I thought for two periods we did some good things,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska following the game. “And I thought after they scored their second goal in the third we lost a lot of momentum from that.”
The Flames had the puck in the Seattle zone a lot in the second period. They peppered Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer with 18 shots, and had a ton of scoring chances – Natural Stat Trick credited them with 18 scoring chances and six high-danger scoring chances during that period.
They just couldn’t muster quite enough tips, traffic or crease-area chaos to turn that many shots or chances into goals.
“First two [periods], we had some looks and created a lot of chances,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund. “At times we were too stubborn. Turned pucks over at the blue line, giving them some odd man chances and some energy. And in the third, I thought they came out with more jump than we did and scored early and, yeah, we had to chase.”
There were also some interesting lineup wrinkles on Monday, including rookie Owen Say being summoned from the Wranglers to serve as Wolf’s backup due to an illness to Devin Cooley. In a weird quirk, Say worked the same bench he did the night prior when he backed up Arsenii Sergeev with the Wranglers.
The Flames were without fourth-line centre John Beecher due to a suspension – he is likely also injured, but it’s likely more will be revealed on that front in the near-future – which allowed Justin Kirkland to slot into the lineup after a three game absence. On the back end, Hunter Brzustewicz was a healthy spectator for the first time in his short NHL career, which facilitated Brayden Pachal’s first game since Dec. 8 – a 10 game absence.
With a promising prospect in Brzustewicz watching in the building and the organization’s top prospect, Zayne Parekh, finishing up his World Juniors commitments with a bronze medal win, Pachal was generally pretty noticeable physically, credited with nine hits in the game. He was also, however, a minus-two on the night.
Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reported on Monday evening that Parekh will be joining the team on their five game road trip, so before too long the Flames will have some interesting lineup decisions to make on their blueline.
The Flames (18-20-4) will begin that road trip on Wednesday night in Montreal.

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