On Saturday afternoon, the Calgary Flames prepared for their home opener at the Scotiabank Saddledome against the St. Louis Blues. It would be the first time these two teams have faced off since the Blues took over the final wild card playoff spot from the Flames via a tiebreaker last season.
The Flames came into the game with a win and a loss through their first two games of the season, and the Blues were looking for their first win after being eliminated in their first game against the Minnesota Wild.
To add to the excitement in the Saddledome, the Flames had their top prospect, Zayne Parekh, in the lineup for the first time since he scored a goal in his NHL debut last season. It was his first time playing in front of a Calgary crowd.
Summary of the game
To open the match, the two began trading power play opportunities within the first seven minutes. Combined, there were five chances for the man advantage in the first inning. The Flames opened the scoring on their second of three chances on the man advantage after Nazem Kadri found Joel Farabee, who fed Matthew Coronato to beat Joel Hofer for the only goal of the period.
The Flames dominated opportunities throughout the first half and began to do so again in the second. Tyler Tucker tried to change the momentum for the Blues by feuding with Ryan Lomberg. However, the Flames continued to apply pressure throughout the first half of the second period with several good scoring chances. This included numerous Class A chances for Samuel Honzek, who was chasing his first career NHL goal, and a post goal from Parekh.
Hofer made several saves in the first half of the second period to keep the Blues in the match until they finally found an attack in the 33rd minute when Robert Thomas found Jake Neighbors alone in front of the net, who made a nice move from up front to beat Wolf.
The goal set the Blues up, and two minutes later on the power play, Thomas beat Wolf with the crossbar to take the 2-1 lead.
The lead didn’t last long, though: Coronato got loose on the rush 32 seconds later and deposited a bar-down shot of his own into the Blues net for his second of the match to tie the game at two, where the second period ended.
Despite shot attempts being 29-16 for the Flames in the second period, the Blues took control of the game with two goals in the third. Both came on deflections, one from Neighbors, his second of the game, and the other from Pius Suter, his first with St. Louis. These goals gave the Blues a 4-2 lead with seven minutes to play.
The Blues then wrapped up the 4-2 win, holding off the late Flames’ pressure. The Blues took control of the match late on, but without Hofer in net this match could have gotten out of hand early on.
These two teams will face each other again in a month’s time, on November 11.
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