Flames out-gun Coyotes in high-scoring outing

The Coyotes made it 2-0 a little later off an offensive zone face-off win. The initial point shot off the draw from Michael Kesselring missed the net… but it bounced off the end boards to Matias Maccelli at the far side of the net, and he fired the puck past a diving Wolf to make it 2-0 Coyotes.

But the Flames answered back off the rush with a gorgeous passing sequence after the initial zone entry. Nazem Kadri ended up throwing a pass through the slot (past Martin Pospisil) to Andrei Kuzmenko at the far side of the slot area, which gave Kuzmenko time to get a shot off to beat Connor Ingram and cut the lead to 2-1.

Before the end of the period, the Flames managed to knot things back up. Matt Coronato intercepted a pass inside his club’s blueline and lead a two-on-one rush with Kevin Rooney. Coronato called his own number, firing the puck past Ingram to make it 2-2.

But the Coyotes answered back late in the period on a power play. With Nikita Okhotiuk in the box, the Coyotes won some battles down low and made some nice passes, ending with Dylan Guenther burying a one-timer feed past Wolf to give the Coyotes a 3-2 edge.

First period shots were 16-10 Coyotes (13-9 Coyotes at five-on-five) and, via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 11-10 Coyotes (high-dangers were 4-3 Flames).

The Flames answered back midway through the second period on a really nice puck retrieval play. Dryden Hunt chased a puck down below the goal line, won a battle, and threw a pass into the slot area for Connor Zary. Zary’s shot beat Ingram to tie the game at 3-3.

The Flames had a power play, but couldn’t put much together. After the penalty expired, Guenther stepped out of the penalty box, joined the attack with the Coyotes, and fired another one-timer feed past Wolf. (It was basically a carbon copy of his earlier goal.) That gave the Coyotes a 4-3 lead.

The Coyotes added to their lead a little later off a very similar play. This time, the puck blooped past MacKenzie Weegar at the point, leading to the Flames defending a three-on-two rush. That sequence ended with Josh Doan firing a one-timer past Wolf to give the Coyotes a 5-3 lead.

33 seconds after Doan’s goal, the Flames answered back off the rush. Mikael Backlund found Yegor Sharangovich in the slot with a superb pass, and Sharangovich cut towards the net with a forehand-to-backhand move, putting the puck past Ingram to cut the Coyotes’ lead to 5-3.

Second period shots were 12-7 Coyotes (all five-on-five) and five-on-five scoring chances were 12-8 Coyotes (high-dangers were 6-2 Flames).

The Flames tied the game just over a minute into the third period off a weird, kind of clever play. Rasmus Andersson dumped the puck into the Coyotes’ end and Nazem Kadri chased it down. He fired a sharp-angle shot and it squirted through Ingram short-side to tie the game at 5-5.

The Flames took the lead a few minutes later. The top power play unit kept the puck and cycled for awhile. A Weegar point shot hit iron, but he got the puck back and threw it on net. Kadri redirected it past Ingram to give the Flames a 6-5 lead.

The Flames held on for the victory.

Why the Flames won

The Flames were bad enough defensively to allow five goals. They were good enough offensively to score six goals.

Red Warrior

Let’s give it to Kadri. He was superb and his line was consistently dangerous.

Turning point

The Flames were really sharp early in the third period and managed to get a pair of key goals from Kadri with the game on the line.

This and that

Sharangovich’s goal in the second period was his 59th point of the season, giving him the single-season record for points by a Belarusian-born player.

Dryden Hunt fought Arizona’s Jan Jenik in the first period.

Up next

The Flames (37-38-5) are headed to Vancouver! They face the Canucks on Tuesday in their final road game of the season.