ANAHEIM, Calif.
Five losses to open a season can make a locker room feel very quiet, and the Calgary Flames had been living in that quiet for nearly two weeks. On Tuesday night at Honda Center, they finally made some noise. Martin Pospisil scored the go-ahead goal at 15:38 of the third period, Yegor Sharangovich added an empty-net goal with 1:22 remaining, and Calgary beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 for its first victory of the season, according to NHL.com's recap of the game. It was the late West Coast final on Tuesday's schedule, and for a Flames team that arrived in Anaheim at 0-5-0, it landed like a deep breath.
NHL.com reported that the win ended the longest season-opening losing streak in franchise history, a skid that had stretched across five games and two weeks of mounting frustration. Reuters, in its own account of the game, noted that Calgary has now won 11 of its last 13 visits to Anaheim, a strange comfort for a team that could not buy a result anywhere else in the season's first fortnight. Whatever the building does for the Flames, they needed every bit of it on Tuesday.
A Game That Kept Changing Hands
Calgary actually started the night the way it wanted to. NHL.com reported that Adam Klapka opened the scoring at 8:32 of the first period, finishing a sequence that began when a Ducks outlet pass went astray and the puck found its way into the slot. It was the first time all season Anaheim had surrendered the opening goal, according to NHL.com, and for a few minutes the Flames looked like a team ready to run away from its own record.
Anaheim answered quickly, and both answers came from its young core. Beckett Sennecke tied the game 1-1 at 12:09 of the first, stealing the puck at his own blue line during four-on-four play and scoring on a breakaway, NHL.com reported. Less than two minutes later, at 14:05, Leo Carlsson put the Ducks ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal. Reuters noted that Mikael Granlund's assist on the Carlsson goal made him the first player in Ducks franchise history to open a season with a six-game point streak, a small piece of history tucked inside a loss.
The second period belonged to a Calgary rookie. Aydar Suniev tied the game 2-2 at 8:02 with a one-timer, NHL.com reported, scoring just seconds after a two-man advantage expired. Suniev finished with a goal and an assist, and Reuters reported it was the first multi-point game of his young career, coming in his 10th NHL game across parts of three seasons. For a team searching for any line that could produce, Suniev's emergence over the weekend set in Anaheim — he also scored his first NHL goal against these same Ducks on Saturday, according to NHL.com — has been one of the few unambiguous bright spots of the Flames' start.
Pospisil Settles It Late
The third period tightened the way third periods do when one team is protecting a good start and the other is protecting its season. Shots were traded, Dustin Wolf held his ground in the Calgary net, and Lukas Dostal — who finished with 32 saves, according to NHL.com — kept Anaheim level deep into the final frame. Reuters reported that Wolf made 23 saves for Calgary, a quieter night than Dostal's but one that grew louder with every late Anaheim push.
The winner came off the rush. NHL.com reported that Pospisil scored from the left face-off circle at 15:38 of the third to give Calgary a 3-2 lead, his first goal of the season arriving at the exact moment his team needed it most. Reuters described a similar picture of a forward driving up ice with overtime looming and finishing low. With Anaheim's net empty, Sharangovich scored with 1:22 left to close the scoring at 4-2, NHL.com reported.
Flames coach Ryan Huska, as quoted by NHL.com, acknowledged how difficult the opening stretch had been and said it was good to see the group's work finally produce a result, adding that the pieces came together more completely than they had in the first five games. Goaltender Dustin Wolf, also quoted by NHL.com, said the team had been battling without getting over the hurdle and that it was a relief to see a late goal go in and deliver two points.
A Debut on the Other Bench
There was a milestone in the home lineup, too. NHL.com reported that Ducks forward Roger McQueen, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut on Tuesday, recording one shot on goal in 11:26 of ice time. Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, quoted by NHL.com, said McQueen gave Anaheim a different look on the right side and created a couple of dangerous plays in his first taste of the league. Sennecke, quoted by NHL.com, offered the honest summary from the Anaheim side: it is hard to beat the same team twice in a row, and the Ducks knew a winless Calgary team would arrive hungry. Anaheim had beaten the Flames 4-2 in Calgary on Saturday, according to NHL.com, and falls to 4-2-0 with the loss.
For Calgary, one win does not repair a 1-5-0 start, and nobody in orange pretended otherwise on Tuesday. But the alternative — a sixth straight loss and a franchise-record skid stretching toward a full week of questions — would have been far heavier. The Flames finally have a template for what a win looks like: score first, survive the pushback, get a kid's line going, and let your best players finish late. Around the league on Previously, the Jets' top line piled up seven points in a wild win over Minnesota, Connor McDavid marked his 800th career game in an Oilers win over the Kings, and you can follow every night's slate on our sports hub.
