5 THINGS - FLAMES @ FLYERS
The Flames look to win second straight game during stop in City of Brotherly Love
Video: Brendan Parker sets up tonight's tilt
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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
Pregame Interviews
GAME DAY FEATURES
'Pleasure To Play Big Minutes' - Zadorov
Say What: 'It's Come a Long Way'
'It's Fun to Reflect' - Coleman
Projected Lineup
STAT PACK
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
2021-22 Head-to-Head Stats
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Elias Lindholm (16)
Goals - Nazem Kadri (8)
Flyers:
Points - Travis Konecny (19)
Goals - Konecny (7)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 21.4% (15th) / PK - 80.0% (12th)
Flyers:
PP - 16.7% (28th) / PK - 73.7% (27th)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 55.08% (4th)
High-Danger Chances: 53.04% (11th)
Flyers:
Shot Attempts: 44.86% (27th)
High-Danger Chances: 43.11% (28th)
Rasmus Andersson was the 10th player sent to centre ice in the shootout Saturday in Sunrise, Fla.
The game was on his stick - and boy, oh boy, he didn't disappoint. The crafty defenceman scored a gem, showing patience and skill to give the Flames a 5-4 shootout victory and an important two points.
"It's kind of a move I've done for quite some time, and I took a few shootouts in Stockton (with the then AHL farm team Heat), and it worked back then," Andersson said. "It was a long time ago. It was nice to see it go in, but honestly, it was just nice to get a win. It was a much-needed one."
The game was, of course, was the much ballyhooed return of Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to their old haunt, while the Flames were facing former teammate Matthew Tkachuk for the first time since this summer's big trade.
Huberdeau scored in the second round of the shootout before Andersson clinched it.
Sitting on the bench watching, Weegar had no doubt his fellow blueliner would put the puck past Panthers netminder Spencer Knight.
"He scores in the shootout all practice. He's a lock," he said of Andersson. "Right away, when he got picked, I had a good feeling about it."
Adam Ruzicka continues to be the hottest Flame (skating on a line with Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli), scoring twice and adding an assist, while Nikita Zadorov and Blake Coleman also tallied for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom made 31 saves in the contest.
"Need him to score, need him to contribute both ends of the ice," head coach Darryl Sutter of Ruzicka, who has four goals and seven points in his last four games. "Did a good job. The line's been really good for us."
The Flames will host Tkachuk and the Panthers at the Scotiabank Saddledome in their first game back home after this road trip. Click for tickets
Video: CGY@FLA: Andersson seals the victory in the shootout
The Flyers are coming off a tough 5-4 shootout loss to the Canadiens in Montreal Saturday night and have now dropped six straight (0-4-2) after a great start to the season.
Former Calgary Hitmen star Travis Sanheim opened the scoring 39 ticks into the first period and Owen Tippett made it 2-0 before the Habs scored a pair to tie it after 20 minutes. Mike Matheson made it 3-2 Montreal in the second but Tippett got his second to knot it back up going into the third.
Kevin Hayes made it 3-2 Flyers but Cole Caufield would get his second of the night with just 1.9 seconds to play and the Montreal net empty.
"I thought we played hard," Flyers coach John Tortorella told NHL.com's Sean Farrell. "I thought we had a ton of good hockey. We just don't know how to manage a game. We have so much to learn in momentums. I mean, total panic when we had the puck trying to end the game. (It's) certainly not through lack of trying."
Hayes echoed his coach's assessment of the night .
"I thought we did some good things," he said. "I thought our team worked very hard tonight, but it's tough when you lose a couple of games in a row and then they score with one second left. It's easy to say things aren't going our way, but we've just got to keep working hard, and things turn."
The Flyers were without leading scorer Travis Konecny who suffered an upper-body injury in a loss to the Bruins in the team's prior outing.
LONG BATTLES:The Flames and Flyers have gone to overtime or a shootout five times in their last eight meetings. Four of those games ended in overtime, with the Flames winning all four and Philadelphia winning the lone shootout the clubs have played over that span.
IMPRESSIVE MILESTONE: Tonight's tilt will be NHL game No. 400 for Flames winger Blake Coleman. The two-time Stanley Cup Champion started his NHL career in New Jersey and was a third-round pick of the Devils back in 2011. He was traded to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline in 2020 and would go on to win back-to-back Stanley Cup titles with the Lightning. He signed with the Flames as a free agent prior to the start of last season and skated in 81 of 82 games for the Flames in 2021-22 and all 17 games for the Flames so far this year.
BIG Z ROLLING: Nikita Zadorov continued his strong play on Saturday against Florida and picked-up his fourth goal on the season. He is currently tied for seventh in the NHL in goals among defenceman and is three away from tying his career high in goals at seven, a mark he hit twice in 2017-18 and 2018-19 as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. He also leads the Flames in plus/minus at +9.
Stick tap to Flames Communications Coordinator Jordan Bay for compiling these notes.
Follow the Flames PR team @FlamesPR on Twitter for more.
Flames - Adam Ruzicka
Pretty hard not to go with Ruzicka in this one. He's been on a tear but isn't tooting his own horn. In fact, quite the opposite. When asked after the tilt against the Panthers about making the most of his current opportunity playing alongside Lindholm and Toffoli, he agreed he's done a good job so far - but the key now is to keep it going: "Right now, yeah. But you've got to be consistent and play the right way. ... It's so short amount of time, right? Three or four games is not enough, so I've got to keep doing it until the end of the season."
Flyers - Kevin Hayes
Hayes is riding a five-game scoring streak, collecting three goals and three assists in that span. He's second in team scoring behind Konecny with five goals and 18 points this campaign.
Saturday's shootout hero Rasmus Andersson scored his first NHL goal against Philadelphia in a 6-5 overtime win back in December of 2018.
