251218_CGYvsSEA_gamer

Matt Coronato came ever so close to opening the scoring.

But persistence paid off, and the young winger's third-period exclamation point helped seal another home victory for the Flames, who improved to 6-1-1 over their last eight home fixtures with a 4-2 win over the Kraken at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Coronato's third-period rip broke a 2-2 tie on a night that saw Calgary fire 46 shots at Seattle goalie Joey Daccord. Mikael Backlund tickled the twine twice, Nazem Kadri scored a key powerplay goal to ignite the rally, while Rasmus Andersson finished the game with three assists, the first of which served as his 200th in the NHL.

Jonathan Huberdeau had a milestone night, too, collecting his 800th career point with an assist on Coronato's decider, while Dustin Wolf stopped 21 of 23 shots that came his way.

Following the game, Head Coach Ryan Huska affirmed that his group felt confident in coming away with a positive result, even when trailing by a goal after two periods.

"It didn’t change the whole night," Huska said of his group's mindset. "There was a pretty good feel around the room from start to finish tonight.

"Even though we were down, I didn’t get a sense that ‘Oh, no, we’re down’ type thing, it was more of a sense that we’ll come back tonight."

"I really liked our start," Andersson added. "I think we had (18) shots in the first period, something like that. I felt like we just kept the momentum going and even when they got their two goals, I really liked our response.

"I thought we played really well throughout the night."

See all the action from big 4-2 victory against Kraken

Calgary fired 18 shots at Daccord in period one, with Coronato acting as the architect of two of the Flames’ best first-period chances. He struck iron almost right off the opening face-off, cranking a shot off the crossbar, then fell victim to a timely stick-check from Jamie Oleksiak on a rebound opportunity before a yawning cage with just over five minutes left on the clock.

Chandler Stephenson opened the scoring 7:52 into the second period, accepting a pass down the left wing before cutting across Wolf’s crease and slipping a backhand shot past the Calgary netminder's left pad.

But Backlund got the Flames back on level terms less than three minutes later. Off a won face-off to Daccord’s right, the puck rotated around to Andersson at the right point. From the circle, he put a low shot goalward that caromed in off the captain at the far post.

Backlund gets Flames on the board against Kraken

Seattle held a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes, reclaiming their earlier one-goal advantage on a powerplay marker by Kaapo Kakko, but the third frame brought better fortunes for the locals.

On their fifth powerplay of the evening, Calgary broke through, and tied the game at 2-2. After a spell of extended pressure, the puck came back to Andersson mid-point; he skipped the disc across to Kadri who one-timed a laser beam past Daccord for his eighth goal of the campaign.

Naz rips a one-timer home on the man-up

Then, it fell to Coronato to put the Flames ahead. And 75 seconds after Kadri's equalizer, the young Long Islander did just that. Linemate Jonathan Huberdeau stole the puck at his own line, then outletted to Andersson who spotted Coronato streaking down the left wing. From the top of the circle, he unleashed a snapshot that sailed into the top corner - over Daccord's left shoulder - for his team-leading 11th goal of the season.

Coronato wires a wrister on a rush to put Flames ahead

Backlund iced it with an empty-netter in the dying embers of the third period, a play precipitated by a selfless shot block by linemate Joel Farabee.

Kadri finished the night with a team-leading 10 shot attempts, he also won a game-high 13 faceoffs as part of his third multi-point game from his last five outings.

Joel gets the honours, with Huberdeau & Andersson recording milestones

The Lineup:

FORWARDS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Morgan Frost - Matt Coronato

Yegor Sharangovich - Nazem Kadri - Joel Farabee

Connor Zary - Mikael Backlund - Blake Coleman

Ryan Lomberg - John Beecher - Adam Klapka

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

Yan Kuznetsov - MacKenzie Weegar

Joel Hanley - Hunter Brzustewicz

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf - starter

Devin Cooley

They Said It:

"We’ve played well on home ice lately"

"We were believing we were gonna come back and win"

"Our detail was great tonight"

"There was a pretty good feel around the room"

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 46, SEA 23

Powerplay: CGY 1-5, SEA 1-1

Faceoffs: CGY 57.4%, SEA 42.6%

Hits: CGY 22, SEA 24

Blocked Shots: CGY 14, SEA 14

5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 18, SEA 17

5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 7, SEA 7

Up Next:

The Flames have two games left before the holiday break, beginning with a Saturday evening Holiday Game matchup against the Golden Knights at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. MT. GET TICKETS

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