{"id":929444,"date":"2026-10-11T21:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929444\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T21:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T21:28:22","slug":"calgary-flames-continue-early-season-struggles-after-third-period-fizzle-against-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/929444\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames continue early-season struggles after third-period fizzle against Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Improvement, but not enough, kept the Calgary Flames<\/a> the only NHL team without even a single point a dozen days into the season.<\/p>\n

The Flames have lost five straight to start a season for the first time after dropping a 4-2 decision to the visiting Anaheim Ducks<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Calgary overcame a disallowed second-period goal to tie the game 2-2 and outshot the Ducks 21-20 heading into the third. <\/p>\n

But the Flames failed to turn three power plays in the period into another goal. Calgary gave up Ryan Poehling<\/a>\u2019s short-handed game-winner on the second chance after an offensive-zone turnover.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely played a better game,\u201d said Flames forward Matt Coronato<\/a>, who assisted on both goals for his first multi-point game this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first 40 (minutes) was really good, but we\u2019ve got to get some wins. We can take some good things, for sure, but we\u2019ve got to get on the right track here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames caught a Ducks team in the second of road back-to-backs, starting backup Ville Husso<\/a> after beating the Jets 5-1 in Winnipeg the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a tough one,\u201d said Flames defenceman Kevin Bahl<\/a>. \u201cWe fought really hard, competed pretty hard, and gave ourselves us a real chance to win that. Generated some good opportunities and held their top guys to… limited at least a little bit off the rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to build your own morale here. Anaheim\u2019s not going to come in and give us a six-nothing game and pump up the boys. We\u2019ve got to go out there and do our thing. We\u2019ve got to play physical and forecheck hard and generate our own morale. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were doing that for a bit there. The game a little bit got away from us, but a good opportunity to build, especially the situation we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary started last season 1-8, putting a team that came within a hair of the playoffs in 2025 on the back foot, and it never really recovered.<\/p>\n

The Flames traded veterans away in-season to accelerate a rebuild centred on youth. <\/p>\n

Aydar Suniev<\/a>, 20, scored his first NHL goal late in Saturday\u2019s second period to tie the game in front of an announced 16,894.<\/p>\n

But the Flames\u2019 farewell season at the Saddledome before moving across the street to Scotia Place next year began with a test of the players\u2019 patience and pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game we played this year, we\u2019ve slowly been getting better, and that\u2019s the most important thing,\u201d head coach Ryan Huska said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThought that was our best game to date. I thought there was a lot of good things from individuals and the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get better every day and you commit to what you\u2019re supposed to do and you focus on your process and how you\u2019re suppose to handle things and what you look like when you\u2019re winning games, eventually we\u2019ll start seeing points in the win column.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames were the NHL\u2019s lowest-scoring team last season and continue searching for goals this year. <\/p>\n

They were outscored 27-8 in five games, and their power play dropped to 2-for-10 after producing zero goals on three tries Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had our first one, I think there was a lot of people trying to make it happen on their own instead of just sticking with what they\u2019ve done on prior power plays, and then it kind of snowballed a little bit from there,\u201d Huska said.<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s opening-day roster tied for the seventh-youngest in the NHL. Training camps were shorter, and there were fewer pre-season games than in past years, but Huska refuted the notion that has contributed to the Flames\u2019 slow start.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers that are 23 to 26 that have been in the NHL for a while, I don\u2019t consider them younger players,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThey should be able to perform at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames and Ducks meet again Tuesday in Anaheim\u2019s Honda Center.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2026.<\/p>\n

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 Improvement, but not enough, kept the Calgary Flames the only NHL team without even a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48,82],"class_list":["post-929444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}