Defensemen Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 16 saves for the Canucks (9-12-2), who have lost three in a row and are 1-4-2 in their past seven.
“Our first period was pretty good, had a lot of grade As, and we lost it,” Vancouver defenseman Tyler Myers said. “Kind of got away from getting pucks behind them, getting on our forecheck. Then we came out in the third and we’re chasing the game. It’s tough to do that, being down three. Just got to regroup, find ways to be more consistent, to be harder on the puck.”
Hronek put Vancouver ahead 1-0 at 1:05 of the first period. Skating in on a 2-on-1, Hronek stopped near the bottom of the right circle to let defenseman Kevin Bahl slide by before roofing a wrist shot over Wolf’s glove.
Frost tied it 1-1 at 7:33, redirecting Andersson’s slap pass from the top of the right circle under the blocker of Lankinen.
Zary then put the Flames in front 2-1 at 8:08. Coleman’s centering pass hit off Canucks forward Aatu Raty and deflected toward the net, where Mikael Backlund poked it on goal with one hand on his stick. Lankinen made the initial save, but the rebound dropped down in the crease, where Zary knocked it past the sprawling goaltender.
It was Zary’s second goal of the season and his first since a 4-3 shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers in the Flames’ season opener on Oct. 8.
“It felt really good,” Zary said of ending the 20-game drought. “I’ve been feeling good about my game lately, but obviously when you come to the end of the game with the stat sheet and it’s kind of blank on there, it’s tough as a player. I know who I am and I know how good of a player I can be and how good of a player I am, so I think it’s just finding that confidence back.”
Wolf stopped Jake DeBrusk on a breakaway during a Canucks power play at 17:28 to preserve the one-goal lead. That save came after he kept the deficit to just 1-0 by stopping DeBrusk on a 2-on-1 with Hughes at 4:17.
“We did have a good start,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said. “They capitalized on their chances. They got some pucks to the net, they beat us to some rebounds, and that’s their game.”
Bahl made it 3-1 at 10:37 of the second period. He skated unchecked to the left face-off dot before scoring with a backdoor pass that deflected in off the left skate of Canucks defenseman Tom Willander as he battled Joel Farabee at the right post.
Yegor Sharangovich pushed the lead to 4-1 at 16:31 by batting a rebound out of the air after Andersson’s one-timer from above the circles bounced out of Lankinen’s glove.
“We did a pretty good job as the game went on,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “Sometimes you worry with the back-to-back and a little bit of the travel we went through, that we’d fatigue as the game went on, but I thought we got stronger. That was a really good sign for our team.”