The goals have dried up and the goals-against are piling-up.
And the Calgary Flames’ hot start suddenly feels like it was a long time ago.
After getting shutout by the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, the Flames had vowed to be better. With captain Mikael Backlund playing his 1,000th NHL game – all in a Flames uniform – his teammates had every reason to play with a little extra pep in their step on Wednesday evening.
Instead, the Flames (5-4-1) fell flat, falling 5-1 to the Utah Hockey Club (5-4-2) in a game to forget.
If there had been positives to find from the Flames’ first two regulation losses of the season if you dug a little bit, there weren’t many to find the last two defeats. The Golden Knights are one of the NHL’s top teams, though, most teams will lose to them now and again. It will sting to have been so thoroughly outplayed by a Utah team that few see as a playoff contender, though.
And yet, the Flames fell behind 2-0 in the first period thanks to goals from Alex Kerfoot and Barrett Hayton and just when it seemed like Anthony Mantha had given them some life with a goal early in the second frame, Maveric Lamoureux restored Utah’s lead to two just 17 seconds later.
Goals from Mikhail Sergachev and Clayton Keller sealed the deal.
Were there any positives? Mantha scoring his first goal in six games counts, at least. But otherwise, they’d be hard to find.
After a great start to the season, Dustin Wolf had an off-game, stopping 23 of the 28 shots he faced. The power-play was 0-for-3. The penalty kill allowed two goals on four opportunities.
The way the Flames started the season means they’re at least still above .500 and there’s still lots of time to turn things around starting with Friday against Jacob Markstrom and the New Jersey Devils.
The way they played in Salt Lake City won’t cut it, though.
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