Good Afternoon!

Flames beat Isles 4-2 in matinee tilt at Scotiabank Saddledome

By Ty Pilson

CalgaryFlames.com

January 17, 2026

It was a heckuva day for the Flames.

No kidding!

Dustin Wolf made 28 saves in a matinee Next Gen game at the Scotiabank Saddledome, as Calgary beat the New York Islanders 4-2 in front of a C of Red crowd packed with youngsters and their families.

He almost scored a goal, too. More on that below.

Yegor Sharangovich, Adam Klapka, Justin Kirkland (with his first of season), and Yan Kuznetsov all beat former Flame David Rittich, who finished the day with 15 saves for the Isles.

Prior to the game, the Flames announced they recalled Matvei Gridin from the Wranglers, reassigned William Stromgren to the AHL club, and also sent Zayne Parekh to the Wranglers for a conditioning stint.

Gridin suited up against the Isles, playing on a line with Nazem Kadri and Connor Zary, and finished with 14:07 in ice time on 16 shifts, with one shot and a massive third-period block on an Adam Pelech point shot.

See all the action from Saturday afternoon's matinee victory

The Flames had two early powerplays in the first period, the first coming just one minute into the frame, the second 2:31 after that. The homeside had a couple shots but couldn't convert on either.

Wolf stopped all 10 shots he faced in the first, arguably the best coming after a turnover in the Flames zone, Isles leading scorer Mathew Barzal skating across the slot patiently and then snapping a shot that eluded a diving Joel Hanley who was looking for the block but was denied by the Calgary ‘tender.

Calgary got on the board at 11:51 after lengthy possession in New York’s zone, Kevin Bahl passing to Rasmus Andersson who then whipped a cross-ice pass to Sharangovich, the winger putting one high, gloveside past Rittich for his 10^th of the season.

Sharangovich snaps a shot upstairs to put the Flames in front

Wolf was tested early in the second, coming across his crease to make a stellar right-pad stop on Jonathan Drouin, who tried to shovel in a pass from Jean-Gabriel Pageau on the backdoor on a 2-on-1.

Another long possession in the offensive zone led to Calgary's second goal of the game at 3:04.

Joel Farabee ripped one off the post off a pass from Frost, the latter keeping the puck in the zone after that with some good hustle and Kevin Bahl eventually hammering a point shot that Klapka tipped in on the doorstep.

Klapka deflects a point shot to extend the Calgary lead

The Flames added to the lead with their third goal on eight shots when Klapka smacked a puck in Calgary’s zone up to Kirkland who fed it over to Lomberg, the Flames sparkplug making a lovely return pass around a sliding Isles defender on the rush and Kirkland putting it high at 9:50.

Kirkland roofs his first of the season to put Flames ahead 3-0

Speaking of Lombo, he was interviewed by the junior reporters. Well worth a watch!

Our Flames Junior Reporters Palmer and Lili put Lombo in the hot seat!

Just a second shy of two minutes later, Kuznetsov found the top shelf on a filthy, long-distance wrister, Kadri and Zary picking up assists.

Kuznetsov's point shot finds the top corner

Pageau scored for the Isles at 12:21 of the second period with a tight-angle shot that snuck shortside past Wolf.

It was an interesting third period down the stretch, with New York coach Patrick Roy pulling Rittich with more than eight minutes left and Anders Lee would squeak one between Wolf's legs with just under three minutes to go.

Wolf, though, nearly scored when he launched a puck the length of the ice that just went wide left.

Jonathan Huberdeau was sent to the box with 1:49 to play giving the Isles a powerplay to finish off the tilt.