It was never going to last all season.
On Thursday night, the high-flying Calgary Flames came crashing down to earth a bit, falling 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes at the Saddledome for their first regulation loss of the campaign.
There’s no shame in that, despite picking up points in their first six games this young season, the Flames were never going to finish the season without losing a single game in regulation, obviously, and the Hurricanes are one of the NHL’s elite teams.
If there’s a lesson to be taken from the game, it’s probably got something to do with not falling behind early.
The Hurricanes took a 3-0 lead in the second period, and while the Flames have shown already this season that they can storm back, it’s not what you want to be doing every game.
“We were just a little flat for the first 25 or 30 minutes of the game and give a good team a few power-play opportunities and they cash in,” Flames winger Blake Coleman said. “I thought the response was good, we were never out of the game. We came back and made it a one-goal game with a chance to tie it late.
“We’ve played with fire a bit falling behind in some games and you’re not going to come back every time, so just take it as a lesson to start on time and go from there.”
They showed it on Thursday.
The Hurricanes were sharper for most of the night and largely controlled the play, outshooting the Flames 43-31 and winning 58% of faceoffs.
That second stat is relevant to how the evening’s proceedings played out, with two of the three Hurricanes goals that weren’t scored into an empty-net — from Seth Jarvis, Jack Roslovic and Martin Necas — coming after they’d won faceoffs.
“They scored two goals off of faceoffs, so it was a big issue for our club tonight,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska.
After falling behind 3-0, the Flames did manage to make things interesting after Jake Bean scored late in the second.
Despite creating the majority of chances in the third period and Jonathan Huberdeau cutting the ’Canes lead to one with time still on the board for an equalizer, they couldn’t pull off their latest comeback and force overtime. Eric Robinson’s empty-netter sealed the deal.
The Flames remain atop the Pacific Division thanks to their strong start. They haven’t won a game in regulation in their last three and Thursday might have been more lopsided had Dan Vladar not been excellent in net, but that’s nitpicking a little.
They’ll face another big challenge on Saturday when they host the Winnipeg Jets (5 p.m. Sportsnet West, Sportsnet 960 The Fan).
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