Flames Fall To Lightning

Calgary loses 8-3 to visiting Tampa Bay

December 13, 2024

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.

Highlights, interviews and analysis of the game

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.

Dan goes post-to-post to make a terrific stick save

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.

Kadri leaps around Moser and makes a move in alone

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.

Zary rifles one upstairs to make it a one-goal game

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.