Wednesday night saw the struggling Calgary Flames face a red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets team that had won four of their last five games entering the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Before the puck dropped, the Flames took a moment to honor Nazem Kadri, who was getting ready to play his 1,000th game in the NHL.
Summary of the game
After the celebration for Kadri, the Flames came out strong, opening the scoring 56 seconds into the match on a goal from Morgan Frost, where he deflected a Jonathan Huberdeau point shot into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Shortly afterwards, Blake Coleman finished off a series of chances by beating Jet Greaves under the pad with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. Coleman’s sixth of the season gave the Flames a 2-0 lead in less than two minutes.
The final goal of the first frame came less than seven minutes in as the Blue Jackets pulled within one goal on Kirill Marchenko’s sixth of the season, when he got loose behind the Flames’ defense while killing a penalty for the short breakaway goal.
After taking a one-goal lead in the first intermission, the Flames expanded it again in the second period. Seven minutes later, Kadri put his fourth of the season in the back of the net, scoring for his friends and family after being set up by Joel Farabee in a two-on-one rush.
Then for the second time in the game, the Flames scored consecutive goals within a minute. Immediately after Farabee and Kadri used a pass to beat Greaves in a two-on-one, Klapka beat him with a wrist shot as he entered Greaves and a Blue Jackets defender as Yegor Sharangovich backed him up.
The Flames carried this 4-1 lead into the second intermission. This allowed the Flames to cruise to victory in the final frame as Dustin Wolf slammed the door, making 22 saves in the period and 42 on the night. Mikael Backlund capped off the 5-1 victory for the Flames, adding an empty-net goal with just under a minute to play.
These two head-to-head opponents will conclude their season series early in the new calendar year. Before that, the Flames will look to extend their first winning streak of the season to three on Friday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, while the Blue Jackets head further west on Saturday for a matchup with the Vancouver Canucks.
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