Calgary Flames starting strong, fading late early this NHL season

CALGARY – It’s a small sample size, but late-game sags have the Calgary Flames off to slow start to the NHL season.

The Flames (1-3-0) lost the third period in a third straight game in Tuesday’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights.

After a 4-3 shootout road win over the Edmonton Oilers to open the regular season, the Flames were outscored 9-1 and outshot 32-19 in third periods over their next three.

“That’s something to be addressed for sure,” Flames defenceman Mackenzie Weegar said. “I hate the word ‘concerning’, but it’s definitely something to be addressed, and we’ve got to fix that for sure.”

The St. Louis Blues struck twice in the third period of Calgary’s home opener on Saturday to leave with a 4-2 win. The Vancouver Canucks outscored the Flames 4-1 in the third period in a 5-1 win last week.

The Flames led 2-0 and 2-1 at period breaks Tuesday, but the Golden Knights took advantage of Calgary’s sagging defence with a pair of goals in a span of two minutes 27 seconds early in the third.

“Just threw away another good start. Just not a complete game,” Flames forward Blake Coleman said.

“It’s a lesson that probably shouldn’t have to be learned with this group. We’ve got guys that have been there and know how to do it.”

Third periods were Calgary’s strength last season when the Flames missed the playoffs by the slimmest of tiebreaker margins. 

The Flames tied with the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens for the most third-period comeback wins at 10. Calgary ranked 10th in the league in third-period goals (93).

The line of Coleman, Mikael Backlund and Samuel Honzek did a solid job early of containing Golden Knights star Jack Eichel on Tuesday, but the latter scored his first midway through the second period when that Flames trio was on the bench. 

Backlund and Coleman were Calgary’s first-period goal scorers.

Kaedan Korczak took advantage of an open shooting lane left by a scrambling Flames defence for the equalizer at 4:11 of the third. 

Eichel muscled by Flames defenceman Daniil Miromanov, who played his first game of the season, to score less than two and a half minutes later.

“Early in the game, we were doing a good job of putting pucks in and playing below the goal line, so we were harder on their back end,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said.

“Then we start slowing our pace down through the neutral zone and I think you feed into a transition game that Vegas is very good at.

“We’re just not playing complete games. So whether it’s portions of the third period or a portion of the second period where I thought we got away from what was giving us success earlier in the game.”

Eichel, whose eight-year, US$108-million extension with the Golden Knights was announced last week, has four goals and five assists in his first four games of the season.

While Flames starter Dustin Wolf gave up a rebound to Eichel on his first goal, Calgary’s goalie made an acrobatic stop on Mark Stone in the third period and stopped Pavel Dorofeyev on his doorstep in the second period of a 26-save performance.

Adin Hill left the Golden Knights’ net after one period with a lower-body injury. Akira Schmid stopped all 19 shots he faced in relief.

After four starts in seven days, the 24-year-old Wolf could have Wednesday off, and Devin Cooley get the nod, when the Flames are in Salt Lake City to face the Utah Mammoth in that team’s home opener.

Calgary plays its second back-to-back in a week to start the season.

Flames left-winger Jonathan Huberdeau participated in Tuesday’s optional morning skate. 

The highest-paid player on Calgary’s roster at a cap hit for $10.5 million per season has yet to play after he was injured in the pre-season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2025.