Flames remain winless in NHL after third-period fizzle, fall 4-2 to Ducks

CALGARY – Improvement, but not enough, kept the Calgary Flames the only NHL team without even a single point a dozen days into the season.

The Flames have lost five straight to start a season for the first time after dropping a 4-2 decision to the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

Calgary overcame a disallowed second-period goal to tie the game 2-2 and outshot the Ducks 21-20 heading into the third. 

But the Flames failed to turn three power plays in the period into another goal. Calgary gave up Ryan Poehling’s short-handed game-winner on the second chance after an offensive-zone turnover.

“We definitely played a better game,” said Flames forward Matt Coronato, who assisted on both goals for his first multi-point game this season.

“The first 40 (minutes) was really good, but we’ve got to get some wins. We can take some good things, for sure, but we’ve got to get on the right track here.”

The Flames caught a Ducks team in the second of road back-to-backs, starting backup Ville Husso after beating the Jets 5-1 in Winnipeg the night before.

“That was a tough one,” said Flames defenceman Kevin Bahl. “We fought really hard, competed pretty hard, and gave ourselves us a real chance to win that. Generated some good opportunities and held their top guys to… limited at least a little bit off the rush.”

“Try to build your own morale here. Anaheim’s not going to come in and give us a six-nothing game and pump up the boys. We’ve got to go out there and do our thing. We’ve got to play physical and forecheck hard and generate our own morale. 

“I thought we were doing that for a bit there. The game a little bit got away from us, but a good opportunity to build, especially the situation we’re in right now.”

Calgary started last season 1-8, putting a team that came within a hair of the playoffs in 2025 on the back foot, and it never really recovered.

The Flames traded veterans away in-season to accelerate a rebuild centred on youth. 

Aydar Suniev, 20, scored his first NHL goal late in Saturday’s second period to tie the game in front of an announced 16,894.

But the Flames’ farewell season at the Saddledome before moving across the street to Scotia Place next year began with a test of the players’ patience and pride.

“Every game we played this year, we’ve slowly been getting better, and that’s the most important thing,” head coach Ryan Huska said.

“Thought that was our best game to date. I thought there was a lot of good things from individuals and the team.

“If you get better every day and you commit to what you’re supposed to do and you focus on your process and how you’re suppose to handle things and what you look like when you’re winning games, eventually we’ll start seeing points in the win column.”

The Flames were the NHL’s lowest-scoring team last season and continue searching for goals this year. 

They were outscored 27-8 in five games, and their power play dropped to 2-for-10 after producing zero goals on three tries Saturday.

“When we had our first one, I think there was a lot of people trying to make it happen on their own instead of just sticking with what they’ve done on prior power plays, and then it kind of snowballed a little bit from there,” Huska said.

Calgary’s opening-day roster tied for the seventh-youngest in the NHL. Training camps were shorter, and there were fewer pre-season games than in past years, but Huska refuted the notion that has contributed to the Flames’ slow start.

“Players that are 23 to 26 that have been in the NHL for a while, I don’t consider them younger players,” the coach said. “They should be able to perform at a high level.”

The Flames and Ducks meet again Tuesday in Anaheim’s Honda Center.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2026.