With his abrasive, aggressive style, Martin Pospisil seems custom-made to be a difference-maker in the Battle of Alberta.
Except in this case, the Calgary Flames’ sparkplug cost his team the game.
Pospisil was seated in the penalty-box Sunday when the Edmonton Oilers scored the go-ahead goal — and the would-be game-winner — on a third-period power-play. The Flames couldn’t erase that damage, ultimately dropping a 4-2 decision that was sealed by an empty-netter in the final seconds.
“That’s twice now,” fumed Flames coach Ryan Huska, irked that Pospisil was busted for high-sticking deep in the offensive zone. “It’s not OK.”
With Connor McDavid currently sidelined by an ankle injury, it comes as no surprise that Edmonton’s other superstar, Leon Draisaitl, was Sunday’s standout at the Saddledome.
Just 20 seconds (and one Flames’ turnover) after the opening faceoff, Draisaitl buried a backhander to stake the Oilers to an early lead. By the end of the evening, he’d piled up three points.
Zach Hyman slipped behind Calgary’s penalty-killers for the tiebreaking tally at the midway mark of the third frame, evading a pokecheck attempt from Dan Vladar and zipping a shot right under the cross-bar.
Jeff Skinner and Mattias Janmark also scored for the out-of-town team, while Anthony Mantha and Yegor Sharangovich were the twine-ticklers for the home side.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s latest edition of the Battle of Alberta, which leaves both the Flames and their neighbours-to-the-north with matching 6-5-1 records …
POSPISIL’S PENALTY PROVES COSTLY
Pospisil and his bench boss seem to agree on this part.
“It can’t happen, especially in a tied game,” Pospisil said of his third-period penalty. “I have to learn from it.”
This was an easy call for the referee after a forechecking Pospisil gave Mattias Ekholm a close shave with the blade of his CCM stick.
“It feels pretty bad, especially when I tried to be careful,” Pospisil said. “Every game, I try to be careful. This is kind of bad luck, but I think I’m getting better. Hopefully, it won’t happen again.”
It better not happen for a while, because it’s clear Huska is growing frustrated with his lack of discipline so far this season.
The 24-year-old Pospisil leads the Flames in both hits and two-minute minors.
With his crash-and-bang brand, he’s going to wind up spending some time in the sin-bin. But he was already benched after a pair of penalties — one for tripping, the other for holding — in what turned out to be a shootout victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins and also left his team shorthanded with a what-was-he-thinking slew-foot against the Winnipeg Jets.
“Hey, he’s the type of player that has to play with an edge,” Huska said after the loss to the Oilers. “But it’s not a reckless-type style that he has to play. Because at the end of the day, points are so valuable. It’s so hard to win in this league that if you overstep the boundary a little bit, then it can cost a team. I think he understands it. He’s gotta really work to be a better player in that regard for us.”
As both the skaters and the skipper pointed out, also to blame for Sunday’s bummer result was a sluggish start. The Flames trailed 2-0 after eight minutes and change.
“The first period, I think they kind of had more energy, but we got back to our game and I think we were the better team,” Pospisil said. “All of a sudden, they score on the power-play and it was tough to tie the game.”
MORE PUCKS ON NET, PLEASE
Mantha’s popularity has faded since his Gordie Howe Hat-Trick on opening night.
While ‘inconsistent’ would be a fair and accurate description for his first dozen appearances in the Flaming C logo, you can’t argue that this guy knows how to light the lamp.
Mantha snapped the Flames’ power-play out of an 0-for-20 cold-spell with a high — but, after review, not too high — deflection in Sunday’s second period.
That marked his fourth goal of the season, tied for second on the team charts. He trails only Jonathan Huberdeau, who has cashed five.
What’s either impressive or perhaps infuriating for the coaches is that Mantha has scored those four on a grand total of only 14 shots this fall — and nearly a third of those came in this latest outing. The good news is he’s firing at a 28.6% clip. The bad news is he is nowhere close to the pace that he was aiming for when he talked about putting 300 pucks on net during the 2024-25 campaign.
Mantha was impactful against the Oilers, and you can be assured the staff will show him some clips and say, ‘More of this, please.’
When Sharangovich tied in up early in the third, No. 39 was parked at the edge of the paint to provide a screen. On his next shift, this 6-foot-5 presence nearly potted Tyson Barrie’s rebound.
“You saw tonight, there was multiple times he was standing right in front of the net,” Huska praised. “That’s how he scored his goal. And for a guy that is his size and has his ability with the puck, that’s what we need out of him.”
‘LITTLE, LITTLE, LITTLE STEP UP’
Andrei Kuzmenko was one of the Flames’ best forwards against the Oilers.
It was, in his words, a “little, little, little step up.”
Kuzmenko was benched for the final 27 minutes of Friday’s shutout victory over the New Jersey Devils.
The 28-year-old right-winger has temporarily lost his spot on the top power-play unit and started Sunday’s contest on the fourth line.
He responded, however, with one of his better showings of the season so far. As the night wore on, he was bumped up to skate with Nazem Kadri and Pospisil. Connor Zary wound up in a checking role.
“Connor, to me, was like Kuzy the other night — he wasn’t moving his feet,” Huska explained. “Tonight, (Kuzmenko) moved his feet. He was the guy that we know is a hard guy to play against with the way he cuts back and is strong on his stick and on the puck. Tonight was the way we expect him to play all the time.”
In his post-game scrum, Kuzmenko made it clear that he expects more.
His season stat-line shows one goal, six assists and a minus-2 rating. That’s not ideal for a guy who prides himself on being an offensive engine and is playing for his next contract.
“I feel every day is better,” Kuzmenko said. “I understand it was a little bad start for me, bad start to the season. I understand my mistakes. I need to play better. I need to help this team. It’s so simple — it’s really hard work on the ice and in the gym. And I need to score for this team. Now, just one goal from 12 games, it’s so bad for me.”