Ducks Down Flames 4-2 in Calgary, Sinking Calgary to the Worst Start in Franchise History

CALGARY

The Anaheim Ducks keep finding new ways to win on the road, and the Calgary Flames keep finding new ways to lose at home. On Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the difference was one short-handed rush, one painful crash into the goalpost, and one more line in the franchise record books that Calgary never wanted.

With the score tied 2-2 early in the third, Ryan Poehling intercepted a play and took off the other way while Anaheim was killing a penalty. He slid a shot along the ice past Dustin Wolf at 5:35 of the third for the go-ahead goal — his first of the season, and the Ducks' third lead of the night. But the play had a brutal cost. Poehling lost his footing when Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh slid into him, sending him crashing into the net. His knee slammed into the post. He lay on the ice for an extended period before being helped to the dressing room, and he did not return. A goal and an assist on the night, and the last memory of it is him limping down the tunnel.

Nikita Nesterenko gave Anaheim its insurance at 17:03 of the third, chipping a loose puck into the net during a goal-mouth scramble, and that was the night. Until Poehling's winner, this was as even as a game gets — maybe even tilted Calgary's way.

The Ducks struck first midway through the opening period. With Parekh in the box for cross-checking, Jackson LaCombe pounced on a loose puck seconds into the power play and lifted it over Wolf's shoulder at 10:02 — his first goal of the season, with Leo Carlsson and Mikael Granlund picking up the helpers. Calgary answered five minutes later on a beauty: Matt Coronato fed a streaking Morgan Frost, who cut in behind LaCombe and tucked it past Ville Husso's right pad for his second goal of the season. But Anaheim took the lead back with 45 seconds left in the frame, when Frank Vatrano redirected a bouncing Noah Warren point shot past Wolf — Poehling had gotten a piece of it first — for Vatrano's first of the year.

The second period had the two moments that told the story of Calgary's night. First, an apparent goal by defenseman Yan Kuznetsov at 11:27 was wiped out on Anaheim's challenge — video review ruled Joel Farabee was offside on the play. Then, with 2:06 left in the period, 2023 third-round pick Aydar Suniev took a pass from behind the net from Coronato and squeezed a sharp-angle shot off Husso's skate and in for his first career NHL goal, tying it 2-2. Suniev's ninth career game, and the Saddledome briefly had a pulse.

It didn't last. The Flames couldn't convert three power-play chances before the midway mark of the third, and Poehling made them pay short-handed on their second opportunity. That's the season in a snapshot: Calgary can't finish its own chances and can't stop giving away the ones it should be killing.

Ville Husso deserved better than to be a footnote. In his first start of the season, he made 27 saves and was quietly excellent — calm through Calgary's best stretches, and he never let the Saddledome get truly loud. At the other end, Wolf stopped 24 but couldn't come up with the two that mattered most. Coronato was Calgary's best player with two assists, and both Granlund and LaCombe extended their season-opening point streaks to five games — Granlund is up to six points (two goals, four assists), LaCombe has five (one goal, four assists).

The backdrop is what matters here. The Ducks are 4-1-0. They've won their first three road games to start a season for the first time in franchise history — 4-3 at Vegas to open it, 5-1 in Winnipeg on Friday, and now this. Out in Vegas, the Golden Knights needed overtime to beat the Kings on the same night — Anaheim is right there with them in the Pacific mix, and nobody had that on the bingo card two weeks ago.

And Calgary? The Flames are 0-5-0. That's not just a bad start — it's the worst start in franchise history, and they're the only team in the NHL without a single point. Five games in, outscored badly, and the one bit of good fortune they got Saturday — a goal that would have tied it — got taken off the board by an offside ruling measured in inches. That's where this team is right now.

The cruel irony is that this wasn't even a blowout. The Flames played one of their better games of the season and still lost. The game was there for the taking in the third period, and they gave it away short-handed — to a guy who then crashed into their own goalpost. That's five straight losses, and the next one comes with the "worst start in franchise history" banner already hanging. There's no soft part of the schedule coming to save them.