VANCOUVER — The Calgary Flames were already preaching the importance of resilience a single game into the NHL season.
The bend-but-don't-break mentality paid off Wednesday when the Flames rallied from an early three-goal deficit and edged the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in overtime.
"That's kind of the mentality we have to have all year, is we're going to go down a bit, or we're going to get knocked down, but we're always going to keep coming back and, just building shift by shift, brick by brick," said centre Connor Zary.
Zary scored the game-winner 92 seconds into overtime.
Calgary appeared poised for a loss midway through the first period Wednesday.
Trouble began 7:41 into the matchup when Canucks centre J.T. Miller slammed Kevin Rooney into the boards, leaving the Flames forward lying still on the ice.
A scrum erupted behind the Flames' net and, once punishment had been doled out, Vancouver had a power play.
Daniel Sprong scored with the man advantage and Vancouver added two more goals in less than three minutes.
Newcomer Anthony Mantha got Calgary on the board with a short-handed goal.
In his first regular-season game for the Flames, the bruising winger — who signed a one-year, US$3.5-million deal July 1 — completed the Gordie Howe hat trick with a fight and an assist.
Despite his tally, Vancouver went into the first intermission up 4-1.
The Flames needed to stay out of the penalty box in the first period, said Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar.
“It was just penalty problems. And I think the hit took us away from our game a bit," he said. "But I like how we responded. (Rooney) is one of our best buddies and we love him, and he's all good. But we stuck up for him in there, and we rallied for him tonight.”
The first period saw 30 minutes worth of penalties handed out, including 19 to the Flames.
Head coach Ryan Huska told his players after the first period to calm down.
"I felt like we played a panic period. We didn't have a lot of composure, and it resulted in all the power plays," he said. "But I'm really happy that they stuck with it and didn't go away, and we found a way to get a couple points.”
With the Canucks' net empty, Miller levelled the score 5-5 with 97 seconds left on the game clock to force overtime.
The Flames weren't troubled, Zary said.
“Even when they scored that goal, someone yelled on the bench ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter boys. Let’s go right back at them,'" he said.
Zary, Mantha, defenceman Rasmus Andersson and centre Martin Pospisil each scored and had an assist for Calgary.
Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau also scored, while Nazem Kadri added a pair of assists.
After allowing four goals on 15 shots in the first period, Flames goalie Dan Vladar stopped nine of the next 10 he faced.
Brock Boeser scored twice for the Canucks, while Miller had a goal and an assist. Conor Garland and Sprong rounded out the scoring, and Arturs Silovs made 20 saves.
Vancouver made the game hard on themselves, said captain Quinn Hughes, who posted two helpers.
"I'm not sure how many leads like that we blew last year, so it's not a characteristic of ours," he said. "But saying that, we definitely have work to do to clean that up, and I'm looking forward to doing that.”
Calgary missed the playoffs last season after finishing with a 38-39-5 record. Expectations were low for a younger, overhauled roster this season.
"There's no quit," Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. "We believe in ourselves, and we're going to fight till the end. So no matter who the opponent is, we're going to go out every night and try and win games.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press