The Calgary Flames lost to the Dallas Stars by a 2-1 score on Wednesday night. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.

For a team that’s used to scoring a lot of goals, the last pair of games must feel pretty foreign to the Flames. After going nearly six full periods without a goal, they managed to avoid a shutout with TJ Brodie’s late third period marker. But the big difference in the game was Dallas scoring a pair on the power play.

“That’s the difference in the game, though,” said Flames head coach Bill Peters. “We’re minus-two on specialty teams. I thought there was a lot of good things, a lot of good things five on five, but obviously minus two on specialty teams makes it tough.”

Peters wasn’t a huge fan of his team’s level of desperation through the game.

“All three zones, 200-feet, their D are blowing by us the first five minutes like crazy,” said Peters. “Jumping by us in the rush. It’s almost like we were unaware… And then in the first period, it didn’t take us long. We looked at scoring chances for and it wasn’t many. There were shots, but nobody’s at the net.”

Flames captain Mark Giordano thought his team had more quality scoring chances than they did against the Kings – and he’s right, as Natural Stat Trick tallied eight high danger chances against the Kings and 10 against the Stars – but he was critical of his team’s execution in the offensive zone.

“We do exactly what you want to do,” said Giordano. “You gain zone, you get possession, you get a lot of time, but we didn’t execute. That’s the bottom line. It seemed like every rebound, every little bounce we weren’t executing like we usually do to put it in the back of the net.”

If you cringed after seeing Roman Polak’s collision with Elias Lindholm in the second period, and Lindholm go awkwardly into the end boards, you weren’t the only one.

Speaking after the game, Lindholm assured the assembled media that he was okay, but that he hadn’t had a chance to look at the hit.

Lindholm and Peters confirmed that the player went through the concussion protocol, but cleared it before returning to the game. Peters was critical of the non-call on the play. (It’s worth noting that referee Jean Hebert was right there when the hit happened.

“You don’t want to see that happen, right?” said Peters. “You don’t want to see that. That’s the beautiful thing in the National Hockey League. That’s not a penalty, but a slash on the stick is. But you know, that’s the reality, that’s the way the game is.”