SUNK IN SHOOTOUT

Jordan Eberle scored the shootout winner Wednesday night as the visiting expansion Seattle Kraken beat the Flames 4-3 in a shootout at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Matthew Tkachuk scored for Calgary in the 1 v. 1 battle, but Johnny Gaudreau and Justin Kirkland were both stopped by Joey Daccord.
Jared McCann also scored in the shootout for Seattle, while former Flames captain Mark Giordano was stopped by Dan Vladar.

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The Flames goalie played the whole game, finishing with 18 saves on the 21 shots he faced.
Tkachuk, Michael Stone and Mikael Backlund scored for Calgary in regulation.
Giordano - who was cheered on by the homecrowd to start the tilt - broke his stick on his shootout attempt but made good earlier in the night.
He scored exactly three minutes into the tilt, taking a pass from McCann as he skated in from the blueline and scored with a backhand through the five-hole of Vladar. The crowd gave him a warm ovation after.
The line of Tkachuk and newcomer Blake Coleman flanking Elias Lindholm started, with Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev on defence. It was the first preseason action for the five.
That forward trio wasted little time getting the crowd out of their seats, Tkachuk skating over the blueline and feeding a pass through two defenders to a streaking Coleman, who pulled the puck to his backhand as he skated across the crease but put his offering up-and-over the net.
After Giordano's goal, the visitors made it 2-0 just past the six-minute mark when Vladar made the intitial stop on a point blast from Adam Larsson, but Jaden Schwartz was in the perfect spot to grab the rebound and put it in the open net.
Tkachuk got the Flames on the board with 5:06 left in the opening frame, cashing in on a pass from behind the net courtesy of Lindholm, No. 19 putting an in-tight backhand into the far top corner.
Coleman also collected a helper on the marker.

The hit of the game came in the second period when Milan Lucic absolutely levelled Kraken forward Jacob Melanson with a bone-crushing hit.

The Flames tied the game up past the midway point of the second period. Walker Duehr kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush after he stripped it from Haydn Fleury in the Calgary zone, snapping a blistering wrister off the post. Stone grabbed the loose puck, and turned and fired it home.

Tkachuk came an inch or so away from tying it up on a powerplay not long after, letting a shot go from the right flank that was headed for an open top corner past a screened Philipp Grubauer - who started the tilt for Seattle - before hitting the crossbar.
Lucic also had a chance on the man-up but was stoned from the slot.
Schwartz put the Kraken ahead after Eberle forced a turnover and feed him the puck all alone out front at 12:37.
Daccord absolutely robbed Lucic late by firing out his right pad to deny him on a rebound attempt with less than four minutes to go.
But Backlund, after digging out a puck amid some bodies, would no mistake with 2:27 left when led a 2-on-1 rush and fired the puck low and farside off the post past Daccord to tie the game.

ONE-TIMERS:

The Flames recognized the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in a pregame announcement ... Once the regular season begins, Johnny Gaudreau can pass Giordano for the eighth most points in franchise history. Giordano finished his Flames tenure with 509 points in 949 games. Gaudreau sits at 494 points in 520 games with the Flames ... Giordano wore an A last night for the visitors ... We're running our 50/50 every game this season, home and away.
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.

THE LINEUP:

The trios and duos to start the contest:
Lines
Johnny Gaudreau - Mikael Backlund - Andrew Mangiapane
Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Blake Coleman
Milan Lucic - Glenn Gawdin - Trevor Lewis
Justin Kirkland - Byron Froese - Walker Duehr
Pairings
Oliver Kylington - Chris Tanev
Nikita Zadorov - Rasmus Andersson
Juuso Valimaki - Michael Stone
Goaltenders
Dan Vladar
Adam Werner

MARK-ING THE OCCASION:

Following the morning skate, Giordano talked to the media about coming back to Calgary and his memories of his time here, while his teammates talked about the impact he left on them and the city.

He was later honoured during the first TV timeout of the game with a highlight video commerating his career with the Flames, both on the ice and off.

UP NEXT:

The Flames host the Canucks this Friday for a 7 p.m. tilt (
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), before flying to Kent, Wash., for a tilt with the Kraken Saturday night at 8 p.m MT.