Get 'Er Done

Perseverance.

The Flames displayed it in spades Saturday evening, skating to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the visiting LA Kings at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Indigenous Celebration Night.

Calgary was outshot 32-18 in the tilt, and 17-4 in the first period, trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes of play before settling in to rally for an important Pacific Division victory.

California kid Dustin Wolf was simply stellar, making 31 saves, leaving folks to reach for their thesauraus again to find new superlatives for his play.

The Flames 'tender, who spent seven years playing in the Junior Kings organization, improved to 14-6-2 this season.

Matt Coronato scored a goal and added a helper, while Jonathan Huberdeau scored his second game-winner in as many outings. It was his fourth game-winner of the season and second against LA this campaign.

Fan favourite Ryan Lomberg had a pair of fights in the game, scrapping with Tanner Jeannot in the second period and then after Kyle Burroughs laid an awkward hit on Walker Duehr behind the net in the third, he tossed the mitts with him.

When he was shown in the box after the second fight with a big smile, he received a raucous applause from the C of Red.

The ice was heavily tilted in favour of the visitors in the opening frame, as mentioned.

But Wolf stood tall making a handful of sensational stops, including being tested early on a Kings powerplay 57 seconds in after MacKenzie Weegar was sent to the box for slashing Kevin Fiala on a breakaway, the LA forward putting his backhand attempt high over the net.

He denied a point shot by Brandt Clarke, then stopped a mid-distance offering from Fiala, leading to a pile up around the net, the rebound eventually ending up back on Fiala’s stick which Wolf also stopped.

Coronato found himself out front all alone when a puck bounced to him off a faceoff in the Kings zone but former Flame David Rittich got his right pad on his attempt.

Later in the shift, Coronato wired a one-timer off a feed from Martin Pospisil but Rittich got enough to deflect it wide.

The Kings would open the scoring at 6:19 after a turnover in the Flames zone, Jacob Moverare’s point shot through traffic finding twine in the top corner.

Wolf made another big save later when he stopped Adrian Kempe who held the puck on a 2-on-1 and fired it.

Things settled down for the Flames in the second, with Calgary outshooting LA 6-5 in the frame.

Coronato would tie it up 8:58 in, setting up shop in the left faceoff dot and taking a pass from Blake Coleman, then showing his lethal release to beat Rittich farside, top shelf.

Clarke was sent off at 3:16 of the third after he pushed Pospisil into the Kings net and then held him in there, earning a couple minutes for interference.

Huberdeau fed Coronato for another one-timer from the faceoff circle, this time on one knee, but Rittich made the stop.

Later in the man-up, Kadri feed it to Coronato in the slot for a quick shot that was stopped, but Huberdeau was there to grab the rebound and spin and fire it around Rittich at 4:36.

Kadri nearly doubled the lead not long after when he took a pass from Pospisil off a rush and rifled it with a diving Vladislav Gavrikov right at his ankles but Rittich gobbled it up.

With time winding down, Wolf made a stop on a tip, then denied Phillip Danault’s rebound attempt with a 10-beller, down in the splits and getting his glove on the puck to put an exclamation point on his performance.

The Flames got a powerplay with 1:48 left in the game and pressed to finish things out.

The Lineup:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil

Blake Coleman - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato

Yegor Sharangovich - Connor Zary - Jakob Pelletier

Andrei Kuzmenko - Kevin Rooney - Ryan Lomberg

Defence

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

Joel Hanley - MacKenzie Weegar

Jake Bean - Brayden Pachal

Goaltenders

Dustin Wolf (Starter)

Dan Vladar

They Said It:

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 18, LAK 32

Powerplay: CGY 0-3, LAK 1-4

Faceoffs: CGY 35.3%, LAK 64.7%

Blocked Shots: CGY 13, LAK 17

Hits: CGY 20, LAK 10

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 18, LAK 18

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 6, LAK 9

Indigenous Celebration!

Flames Quarter-Century Teams

They were announced this morning. Read all our content and watch videos with Iggy and Connie:

CLICK TO SEE FULL LISTS OF PLAYERS ON FIRST AND SECOND TEAMS

CLICK TO READ STORY ON BACKLUND & ANDERSSON

CLICK TO READ STORY ON GIO

'CLICK TO READ STORY ON REGEHR

Remembering Al MacNeil

Up Next:

The Flames head out foir a four-game road trip that kicks off in Chicago on Monday at 5:30 p.m. MT on Prime.