Devin Cooley showed why he earned the Calgary Flames backup role Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough to keep his team from falling to 1-4-0 on the early season.

Cooley turned aside 29 of the 31 shots he faced in the 3-1 loss to the Mammoth in his first start of the season.

Calgary turned to the 28-year-old in the second half of a back-to-back stretch after falling 4-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on home ice Tuesday.

“I felt pretty good, maybe a little jumpy, a little scrambly, but maybe that comes with not playing in a while and just having a lot of energy and feeling really excited to get an opportunity,” Cooley told reporters post-game. “I thought our guys battled really hard, it wasn’t easy coming in, I think we got in at 3:30 or 4 in the morning on a back-to-back, it wasn’t easy. Our guys battled until the end.”

Wednesday marked just the seventh start of Cooley’s NHL career and his first with the Flames. Cooley went undrafted out of the University Denver travelled through the ECHL and AHL before appearing in six games with the San Jose Sharks in 2023-24. He spent all of last season with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, going 21-17-5 with a .905 save percentage and a 2.94 goals-against average.

“For his first game of the year, I thought he was excellent tonight,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said. “He made the saves he had to and sprinkled in some that were competitive saves. That’s what you want to see from him.”

Flames tailspin continues

Even with a strong performance from Cooley, the Flames suffered a fourth straight loss after defeating the Vancouver Canucks in their opener.

Rasmus Andersson gave Calgary the lead in the first period. The Mammoth jumped ahead with two goals in just over three minutes early in the second period, a frame in which the team was outshout 18-3.

The Flames finished six-for-six on the penalty kill, but couldn’t overcome the offensive minutes lost while down a man.

“It’s going to be a hard game to win when you take six minors,” Andersson said. “I think we had a good first period, second period we come out flat and take a bunch of penalties and they get momentum. Sure, we had a good push in the third and probably could have scored one or two, but we didn’t. Just the penalties cost us tonight, I thought.”

The Flames will visit the Golden Knights on Saturday as the team looks to get things back on track and their early-season skid.