Yegor Sharangovich scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and Morgan Frost collected a goal and an assist to lead the host Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Matvei Gridin also scored for the Flames, who secured only their second victory of the season and their first on home ice. Goaltender Devin Cooley delivered a stellar performance, stopping 34 shots, including several crucial saves in the final minutes while the Hurricanes played with an extra attacker after pulling their goaltender.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jalen Chatfield scored for the Hurricanes, the defending Stanley Cup champions whose seven-game winning streak was snapped. Goalie Brandon Bussi stopped 31 shots for Carolina, which had won five consecutive road games and played the second half of a back-to-back set after facing Winnipeg on Saturday night. Prior to the game, the Hurricanes announced that forward Mark Jankowski, who entered the night with a goal-scoring streak of six consecutive games, was scratched due to a lower-body injury.
Despite entering the contest from opposite ends of the standings, both clubs traded momentum in a tightly contested match. After a scoreless opening period, Kotkaniemi opened the scoring at 6:09 of the second frame by pouncing on a rebound for his second goal in as many games.
Calgary responded late in the middle period after surviving an extended defensive zone shift that saw defenseman Yan Kuznetsov trapped on the ice for 3 minutes and 13 seconds. Gridin tied the game with his first goal of the season, firing a top-shelf shot from the slot with 90 seconds remaining in the period.
The final two minutes of the second period featured a flurry of scoring. Frost, skating in his 400th career NHL game, gave Calgary a 2-1 lead by converting a tap-in power-play goal set up by Zayne Parekh with 20.9 seconds left on the clock. However, Carolina struck back immediately when Chatfield unleashed a seeing-eye point shot past Cooley with just 4 seconds remaining in the frame for his first goal of the season.
Calgary seized control of the pace in the final period, mounting a 12-1 edge in shots over the first 10 minutes. The sustained pressure paid off at 15:32 of the third when Sharangovich converted a precise one-timer from the slot to break the tie and seal Calgary’s breakthrough victory.
