Flames Fall To Kraken

Andrei Kuzmenko scored a pair of goals but the Flames fell 4-2 to the Seattle Kraken Monday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The winger now has five goals in 10 games since being acquired in a trade with the Canucks.

His first tally was his 100th carrer point, becoming the only active skater with fewer than 150 games played to reach the 100-point plateau. Kuzmenko also becomes the 35th active undrafted skater in the NHL to reach 100 points in their career

Trailing 2-1 after 40 minutes, the visitors made it 3-1 early in the final frame before the Flames - known for their penchant for third-period comebacks - put the pedal down looking to win their sixth-straight outing.

But despite the push, they couldn't find the equalizer.

Jacob Markstrom was excellent, yet again, making 26 stops in the loss.

The Flames now head out on the road for a three-game road trip to Florida to face the Lightning and the Panthers, before finishing off in Carolina against the Hurricanes.

The first period started off with a bang – literally.

Martin Pospisil circled in and pasted Adam Larsson into the boards just seconds into the tilt, eliciting a loud cheer from the C of Red.

From there, things got tougher.

It took the Flames more than half the period to get their first shot on net and trailed in that metric 11-2 after 20 minutes.

Along the way, Seattle opened the scoring in the first period at 4:04, Yanni Gourde snapping home his eighth of the season.

The homeside turned the script in the middle stanza, outshooting the Kraken 18-9 (they added 17 more in the third, to outshoot Seattle 37-30 on the night).

Nazem Kadri and Kuzmenko had a nice look on a 2-on-1, Kadri opting to keep and fire but Philipp Grubauer made a pad save.

Not long after, Pospisil and Tye Kartye got into it, the Kraken winger earning an extra two minutes and giving Calgary a powerplay.

Kuzmenko – stationed beside the net - took a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau and fed Kadri for a shot, then coralling the rebound and taking a couple of whacks to put it past Grubauer who was trying to hug the post at 7:50.

A turnover in the Flames’ zone led to Seattle’s second goal, Oliver Bjorkstrand one-timing a feed in the slot farside at 12:34.

Markstrom kept the deficit at one when he kicked out his left pad to deny Matty Beniers on a breakaway with just over five to play in the period.

Larsson made it 3-1 just 21 seconds into the third before the push started. Rasmus Andersson fed Pospisil, who stepped into a howitzer that went off the post, but some 10 ticks later Andersson fed Kuzmenko up high and his long-distance wrister found twine at 7:46.

From there Calgary got some quality looks on a pair of powerplays, the best coming after Noah Hanifin rifled a puck that Mangiapane got a whack at, the puck falling in the blue paint and Grubauer able to cover it just before Mangiapane could poke it in.

The Kraken put the eventual nail in the coffin while shorthanded on the second advantage, Jared McCann scoring on a breakaway at 12:29.

Pospisil was ejected from the game with 6:19 left, given a five-minute major for hitting Vince Dunn from behind.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Andrei Kuzmenko - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

Jonathan Huberdeau - Yegor Sharangovich - Dryden Hunt

Jakob Pelletier - Kevin Rooney - Walker Duehr

Defence

Noah Hanifin - MacKenzie Weegar

Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson

Jordan Oesterle - Brayden Pachal

Goaltender

Jacob Markstrom - starter

Dan Vladar

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 38, SEA 30

Powerplay: CGY 1-4, SEA 0-4

Faceoffs: CGY 52.8%, SEA 47.2%

Blocked Shots: CGY 25, SEA 21

Hits: CGY 20, SEA 20

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 22, SEA 25

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 8, SEA 10

Up Next:

The Flames head out on the road to face Tampa Bay on Thursday at 5 p.m. MT..