The Calgary Flames hosted the Vancouver Canucks for a preseason matchup at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night.
The Flames came out with a roster that will be pretty similar to the lineup that they are projected to ice on opening night, while the Canucks did the same.
Game Recap
Out of the gates, the Flames had the early pressure. They had an early power-play opportunity, which the Canucks killed off. Through seven minutes, the Flames had all the early chances, leading the shots 4-0 until they let Canucks forward Brock Boeser get loose on a breakaway, who beat Ivan Prosvetov to open the scoring on their first shot of the game.
The opening goal unlocked the Canucks, they started dominating the puck and the scoring chances. After applying pressure three-quarters of the way through the first, the Canucks forced the Flames into taking an interference penalty, which led to a Canucks power-play goal that was wired home on a one-timer from Elias Pettersson, who was set up by Quinn Hughes and Conor Garland.
Twenty-two seconds later, the Canucks took a three-goal lead on a slapshot which took an unfortunate bounce off Nazem Kadri’s stick before ending up in the Flames’ net.
Then, 56 seconds after the third goal, the Canucks scored the final goal of the first, making the game 4-0 on a short-handed goal from Derek Forbert, which Garland assisted for his second point of the night, and Teddy Blueger.
The Canucks took this four-goal lead into the first intermission, despite the Flames having more high-danger chances in the period.
The Flames stuck with it and came out firing in the second, breaking the ice 30 seconds into the period on a goal from Joel Farabee, who put a shot past an off-balance Kevin Lankinen after making the initial save.
A couple of minutes later, the Canucks responded, regaining their four-goal lead, on a beautiful give-and-go play that Max Sasson finished off after being set up by Jake DeBrusk.
The Canucks then extended their lead to five just after the halfway mark of the second period on a sharp-angle shot from Aatu Raty, which beat Devin Cooley on the first shot he faced after taking the net from Prosvetov.
They carried this lead into the third period, before Hughes extended it further, finishing off a two-on-one, jumping up in the rush and getting in all alone on Cooley.
With one minute remaining in the game, the Canucks got loose on another odd-man rush. Arshdeep Bains made a tremendous move to beat the Flames defender and found Sasson alone in front, who scored his second goal of the game. This goal closed out the 8-1 victory for the Canucks in Calgary.
The Flames will look to rebound against the Winnipeg Jets at home on Friday night in their final preseason game, while the Canucks will close out their exhibition schedule with a matchup against the Edmonton Oilers on the road that same night.
