On Monday night, following a 2-0 shutout victory over the Utah Mammoth on Hockey Night in Canada, the Calgary Flames hosted the Buffalo Sabres at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Related: Projected Lineups for Sabres vs Flames – 12/8/25
On the other side, the Sabres were looking to bounce back from back-to-back three-goal losses, while also losing four of their last six games by multiple goals.
Game Recap
It was a strong start to the game for the Flames; they dominated the early chances and were finally rewarded just before the halfway mark of the first period when Yegor Sharangovich deflected home a Mackenzie Weegar point shot with his arm. His second goal in as many games.
They then extended their lead to two at the end of a five-on-three power play when Rasmus Andersson scored on a fluttering point shot, after breaking his stick on the shot, 14 minutes into the game.
The 2-0 lead held through the remainder of the first frame. The Sabres finally broke through on the power play five minutes into the second period, with Tage Thompson ripping one home from the right circle after being given way too much time to decide where to beat Dustin Wolf.
However, the Flames quickly extended their lead back to two, responding with their second power-play goal of the game when Matthew Corontato found Jonathan Huberdeau on the back door for a tap-in.
They continued to trade goals in the second period, with Owen Power showing some patience to find a shooting lane from the point and feathering a shot through the traffic in front of the net. Under a minute later, Joel Farabee found Nazem Kadri on the doorstep for another tap-in with just under six minutes to play in the second.
And in another sequence of 60 seconds, Josh Doan found a streaking Rasmus Dahlin who redirected a puck over Wolf’s pad with four minutes left to play, which preceded Yan Kuznetzov shovelling home a rebound after Blake Coleman took the puck to the net.
This goal rounded out a six-goal second period, which ultimately ended where it began: the Flames up by two.
The game tightened up in the final 20 minutes. But the Sabres managed to get the game back within one goal on a late power-play opportunity, with just over three minutes left to play. With their net empty and six skaters on the ice, Alex Tuch deflected a Dahlin point shot to beat Wolf, who took the penalty to put his team shorthanded.
It was too little too late shortly after Mikael Backlund and Sharangovich iced the game with empty-net goals to close out the exciting 7-4 Flames victory.
Off the loss, the Sabres are back in action tomorrow night against the Edmonton Oilers, while the Flames get the Detroit Red Wings at home on Wednesday.
