So who had a nail biter victory against the Sharks with key goal scorers Kevin Rooney and Joel Hanley on their bingo card?
No one?
Didn’t think so.
The Flames were a mess five on five tonight, relying heavily on Dustin Wolf to carry the mail as they limped their way through a 3-2 regulation victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.
Both teams had rust on and off in the first period, but then the Sharks were the better team the rest of the way.
Take the two points and move on with a daunting six game road trip starting Tuesday in Washington.
Season on the line.
It’s GO time.
The Lineup
It looked like wo huge additions to the Calgary Flames lineup tonight with Kevin Bahl and Connor Zary both returning to action. Huge shot in the arm for the team’s depth and slotting. Kevin Bahl however, pulled up sick and won’t dress, leaving his return for later in the week on the road.
So with that some change throughout the Flames lineup.
Dustin Wolf gets the start in goal, as he tries to halt a personal three game skid.
On the blueline it’s Illya Solovyov with Rasmus Andersson, Joel Hanley with Mackenzie Weegar and a third pairing of Jake Bean with Brayden Pachal.
Forward lines are somewhat like what we saw before the break; Matt Coronato up on the top line playing with Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau, a reunited third line with Mikael Backlund between Connor Zary and Blake Coleman. The Philly guys; Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee with Yegor Sharangovich, and then a somewhat elevated fourth line with Martin Pospisil with Kevin Rooney and Adam Lomberg.
Pre Game Stats Dive
So where are they?
The Flames are three points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand on Vancouver, who lost last night.
To beat out the Canucks, they’ll need to finish with 93 points which would require a 16-10-1 finish which is .611 hockey.
If they go the other way, they’ll need to slide to 82 points to get into the argument for a top ten pick, and have the Florida pick go to Montreal. In order to do that they’ll need to go 10-15-2, which is a .407 pace.
Chances are it’s in-between, don’t you think?
Zayne Watch
It certainly isn’t common to have a blueliner prospect with an offensive output so extreme that a goal and no assist game feels like a disappointment.
Yet I felt myself thinking ” … jeez only one point?” when I perused the stat line from his game yesterday.
Heading into yesterday’s game Zayne Parekh needed 19 points in 13 games for 1.46 points per game. With only one goal that number is now 18 points in 12 games for 1.50 points per game.
For reference, here are his points per game by month on the season …
| Month | GP | Goals | Assts | Pts | G/G | P/G |
| 9/1/2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 10/1/2024 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| 11/1/2024 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| 12/1/2024 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| 1/1/2025 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
| 2/1/2025 | 10 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 0.5 | 2.2 |
Wolf’s Start
I thought Dustin Wolf was rock solid in the first period, in front of a team that didn’t look ready.
He was beaten by Celebrini when the Flames lost their check and left him wide open in front of the net, but was excellent otherwise in swallowing up pucks through screens and not giving up rebounds.
Calgary even worse in the second period but Wolf was amazing again, keeping them in the game.
He gives up a Toffoli goal in the third in an out of the air rebound and then shuts the door.
The Sharks with 2.93 in expected goals and Wolf gives up only two.
Another stolen game?
Odds and Sods
The Flames had two good shifts to start the game, and then fell into a bit of a funk that lasted a good dozen minutes of the first period. The Sharks open the scoring on a Celebrini goal, but the Flames tie it when Nazem Kadri scored on a powerplay. Calgary found their legs towards the end of the period and finished strong. … Noticeable change up front with the added depth. Coronato on the top line, Zary bolsters the gap that Coronato left, and you have three strong forwards on the third line as well. Additionally, the fourth line looked much better with Pospisil helping to drive play to some degree and even chipping in with a rare goal! … More sloppy play by the Flames in the second period. Less by way of shots by the Sharks, but they gave up a breakaway, a two on one, and too much zone time on turnovers. If they were lined up against a real NHL team they would have been down three goals through 40. … Slightly better third period for the Flames. They give up the tying goal to Tyler Toffoli, and then go back ahead with 6.5 minutes to play on a four on four when Joel Hanley buries it. Flames win. … Two points are even more important with the Vancouver Canucks losing in Utah. The Flames are now a point back and still have a game in hand. Much better than three points with even games played, which was the case coming out of the break.
Fancy Stats
The Flames generated scoring chances with the man advantage but were pretty listless five on five on the night. Against a bottom dwelling team it certainly wasn’t a good sign to be roughly 40% five on five. Yuck. The Flames, five on five, had 47% (52%/40%/59%) of the shot attempts, 42% of the high danger chances, and 40% of the expected goals. In all situations they had 50% of the shot attempts, 50% of the high danger chances and 52% of the expected goals.
Individually, the Flames were led by Mackenzie Weegar with an xGF% of 62% on the night. Only four other players were above water; Yegor Sharangovich, Joel Hanley, Jake Bean and Joel Farabee. At the bottom of the list were the pairing of Illya Solovyov and Rasmus Andersson who were both around 29%.
