On Thursday night, the Calgary Flames returned home after a short two-game road trip to host the struggling Seattle Kraken, who have lost nine of their last 10 games.
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It was the first of three games between these two Pacific Division rivals after splitting a four-game series last season.
Summary of the game
For the first twenty minutes, the Flames controlled the game in every aspect except the scoreboard. They had 18 shots to the Kraken’s six. However, Joey Daccord saved everything during the first frame to keep the Kraken in the game.
The Kraken repaid their goaltender’s early effort by scoring the game’s first goal nearly eight minutes into the second period, when Eeli Tolvanen found a streaking Chandler Stephenson, who made an excellent play on Dustin Wolf for his eighth goal of the season.
Midway through the game, the Flames finally solved Daccord when Mikael Backlund tapped in his sixth of the season. Rasmus Andersson made a pass through traffic to perfectly find Backlund to record his 200th career NHL assist and even get the game going again.
Before the end of the middle frame, the Kraken regained the lead with Ryker Evans, who made a phenomenal pass, putting a puck on Kaapo Kakko’s stick which he rammed into the back of the Flames’ net.
After hitting double-digit shots in each of the first two periods, the Flames kept the pressure up in the third, finally beating Daccord for the second time on their 42nd shot of the match when Nazem Kadri nailed a one-timer top shelf on the power play, making the match 2-2 with 10 minutes remaining.
Less than two minutes later, the Flames took the lead and Matthew Coronato hurriedly grabbed the top corner to score his eleventh of the season. With a primary assist on each of these last two goals, Andersson picked up his second and third points of the evening.
Coronato’s goal scored the match winner, with the Flames holding off the Kraken and sealing the 4-2 victory with Backlund’s empty net with less than 10 seconds to play, his second of the match, after a brave blocked shot by Joel Farabee.
Both teams are back in action on Saturday, the Flames at home against the Vegas Golden Knights and the Kraken on the road against the San Jose Sharks.
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