Flames Fall To Lightning

The visiting Tampa Bay Lightning scored four third-period goals to pull away en route to a 8-3 victory over the Flames Thursday night.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Connor Zary scored for Calgary, who suffered a rare home loss dropping their record at the Scotiabank Saddledome to 10-4-1 this season.

Dan Vladar got the start in net finishing with 18 saves.

The Lightning went 3-for-3 on the powerplay in the outing.

The Flames opened the scoring 4:42 into the game when Martin Pospisil had the puck knocked off his stick as he tried to pass to Huberdeau, but the biscuit went to No. 10 for a easy backdoor tally.

Calgary kept pressing, with MacKenzie Weegar letting a point blast go that Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped, but Pospisil was right there cruising through the crease with Nick Perbix on his back, almost able to tuck the puck home.

Vladar made nine stops in the opening frame, his first 10-beller coming when he came across his crease to get his pad on Brandon Hagel’s tap-in attempt off a pass from Conor Geekie.

With 1:20 left in the opening stanza, Nikita Kucherov stole the puck and skated in on a breakaway, snapping it under Vladar’s blocker to tie things up.

The Lightning came out with a hard push in the second, Vladar making stops on Geekie and Hagel and then Nick Paul rifling one off the post.

Jake Guentzel scored at 6:25 off a rush, using a few players as a screen and putting it under Vladar’s glove.

Tampa Bay then went to the powerplay and Calgary product Brayden Point one-timed a feed in the slot at 7:55.

They would add another powerplay marker when Anthony Cirelli found a loose puck on the backdoor to score at 11:05 with one second left in the advantage.

Kadri scored a goal-of-the-year candidate at 12:14, when J.J. Moser blew a wheel in his zone and lost the puck, Kadri jumping over him, pirouetting to one knee, then standing up and firing the puck home.

Then a few minutes later, Zary skated into the zone and took a feed from Blake Coleman and made no mistake with a wrister that found twine.

In the third period, Hagel scored 43 seconds in, Guentzel added another powerplay marker at 11:32, Geekie tallied at 13:22, and Guentzel rounded out the scoring at 17:21.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Yegor Sharangovich - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato

Blake Coleman - Connor Zary - Andrei Kuzmenko

Ryan Lomberg - Kevin Rooney - Walker Duehr

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Jake Bean - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dan Vladar - starter

Dustin Wolf

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 22, TBL 26

Powerplay: CGY 0-0, TBL 3-3

Faceoffs: CGY 37.5%, TBL 62.5%

Blocked Shots: CGY 20, TBL 14

Hits: CGY 16, TBL 12

*5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 17, TBL 34

*5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 7, TBL 11

*Courtesy of NaturalStatTrick

Up Next:

The Flames will play four more home games before Christmas, continuing Saturday when they host the Florida Panthers at 8 p.m. MT. GET TICKETS