After an excursion to China, most of the Calgary Flames’ veterans jumped back into game action on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome. While many of them looked merely fine, Austin Czarnik sparked his team with three goals en route to a 5-2 preseason victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

The locals drew first blood after Michael Stone’s hustle drew a penalty. The power play got to work, with a rapid-fire passing play that saw all five Flames players touch the puck. Mikael Backlund found Austin Czarnik at the side of the Canucks net for a slap-pass redirect and a 1-0 lead.

The Canucks answered back, though, on a five-on-three advantage with Backlund and Stone in the penalty box. Juuso Valimaki lost his stick, so he borrowed Michael Frolik’s. That left Frolik unable to clear a loose puck, and a few moments later Elias Pettersson’s centering pass from the side of the net deflect in off a Flames defender. That made it 1-1. But the Flames answered back before the period ended: Matthew Tkachuk made a nice drop-pass off a zone entry which was grabbed by Czarnik and rifled past Thatcher Demko from the top of the circles to make it 2-1.

Shots were 10-9 Flames in the period, but chances were even at 4-4.

The Flames scored to kick off the second period, but this time on the penalty kill. Michael Frolik’s clearing pass drifted into the Canucks zone. Demko considered going after the puck, then hesitated, giving Backlund an opportunity to grab the puck and deposit the puck behind him to make it 3-1.

Czarnik completed the hat trick by redirecting a Tkachuk slap-pass with his shinpad to make it 4-1.

Shots were 9-7 Flames, but chances were 5-3 Canucks.

The Canucks generated four third period power plays. The Flames’ penalty kill was up for the challenge, but eventually Brandon Sutter redirected a Petterssen pass past Rittich to make it 4-2. (That was on the third power play, the Flames did a strong job disrupting the other three.) Mark Jankowski added an empty net goal with 16 seconds remaining to make it 5-2. Shots were 13-3 Canucks and chances were 6-1 Canucks.

They were a little bit better than the Canucks in every area. Their defensive zone play was a little bit better, their goaltending was a little bit better, and they out-scored them at even strength. When you don’t allow any five-on-five goals against, you’ll do well on most nights.

It’s gotta be Czarnik, whose first game in the Saddledome resulted in a hat trick. But give credit to his linemates: Backlund and Tkachuk were also very good.

Czarnik’s third goal made it a 4-1 game and put it things out of reach. The home team went into cruise control at that point.

With no Mark Giordano on this evening, alternate captains As were worn by Sean Monahan, Backlund and Tkachuk. By all accounts, the Flames are figuring out what to do with Troy Brouwer’s old A, though.

It was the fourth preseason game this fall for Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane and Juuso Valimaki – they lead the team in that category.

The numbers from the four blueliners auditioning for NHL work:

The Flames practice tomorrow at Winsport, then host the Winnipeg Jets on Monday at the Saddledome.