Flames Fall To Sens

OTTAWA – The Flames had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 4-3 loss to the Senators to kick off their four-game road trip Monday night.

Nazem Kadri scored with 38.1 seconds to go with Dustin Wolf pulled, but that was as close as they got.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Yegor Sharangovich – with his third goal in as many games – also scored for the Flames, while Wolf made 26 saves.

The Sens scored a pair on the powerplay in a game that was choppy, chippy, full of penalties for the Flames – with a pair of goal challenges thrown in for good measure.

Calgary is now 12-7-3, while Ottawa broke out of a four-game skid and improved to 9-11-1.

Wolf came up big – early and often – during the first period when the Senators pressed hard out of the gates.

He made an incredible stop less than seven minutes in during a long Ottawa possession when he came across to stop Nick Cousins who took a pass from Zack Ostapchuk, the Calgary goalie sliding out of his crease with the puck caught up on him, drawing a crowd.

Later, he stoned Adam Gaudette’s shot from short range, followed by one from Tim Stützle right on the doorstep.

Then things started to get crazy.

Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk was sent to the box for slashing and the Flames poured on the pressure, culimanting in a lovely tic-tac-toe finish by Huberdeau at 14:32 past Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg, with Matthew Coronto and Connor Zary getting the assists.

Calgary appeared to make it 2-zip just 31 ticks later when hometown boy MacKenzie Weegar fired one home but the refs waived it off, citing incidental contact on Forsberg.

The Flames challenged as Jacob Bernard-Docker had pushed Justin Kirkland into his 'tender. After review, the call stood and Calgary received a delay-of-game penalty.

On the powerplay, Tkachuk rifled a hard shot that knocked Wolf’s helmet off. After play resumed, Gaudette would then tally into a yawning cage at 17:05 after a no-look pass from Ridley Greig.

Not long after, Kevin Bahl was sent off after putting the puck over the glass and Tkachuk fired a shot Rasmus Andersson blocked, but he got his rebound back and put it past Wolf.

Cue the Calgary challenge for goaltender interference and after review, the goal was overturned.

In the final minute of the frame, things got testy as Brayden Pachal and Greig got into it, followed by Huberdeau and Shane Pinto getting tangled up.

When the dust settled, both Pachal and Greig were sent off with Huberdeau getting an extra two to give Ottawa their third powerplay of the game – which carried over into the second period.

The home side had 1:19 of powerplay time to start the second, and that had barely expired and Ottawa went back on the powerplay when Andrei Kuzmenko was whistled for a high stick 2:23 in.

Drake Batherson scored with a long wrister through traffic at 3:18 to give Ottawa their first lead of the night.

The Sens would add another one with 6:43 to go in the period after a mad scramble in the Flames zone ended with Cole Reinhardt sweeping a backhand into the net with Wolf lunging to come back across his crease.

Calgary would come to life in the back half of the second, Sharangovich scoring at 15:27 after Coronato had a shot that Sens defenceman Nick Jensen tried to clear, but he put it right on the stick of the Flames forward, who made no mistake. The goal was courtesy of some hard battling by Mikael Backlund in the corner and then a poke check by Sharangovich to keep the play alive.

They came looking for another not long after, Backlund feeding Sharangovich but Forsberg made an awkward stop, then snow-angeled the puck out of his crease as Coronato cut in but he couldn’t elevate the puck over the Sens ‘tender who snagged it.

The Sens went back on the PP just 31 seconds into the third and Tkachuk – set up in the spot where his shot hit Wolf’s mask, this time put it farside under Wolf’s glove to make it 4-2 at 1:14.

Calgary went on the powerplay 2:50 in but that was quickly negated when Weegar was sent off for interference.

The visitors pressed, and drew within one when Kadri beat Forsberg with a snapshot while Wolf was on the bench for the extra attacker.

Andersson led the Flames with 28:05 of ice-time, while Backlund and Sharangovich each finished with a team-high six shots on goal.

The Lineup:

FORWARDS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Connor Zary - Blake Coleman

Martin Pospisil - Nazem Kadri - Andrei Kuzmenko

Yegor Sharangovich - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato

Ryan Lomberg - Kevin Rooney - Justin Kirkland

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson

MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov

Joel Hanley - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf (starter)

Dan Vladar

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 27, OTT 30

Powerplay: CGY 1-2, OTT 2-9

Faceoffs: CGY 43.5%, OTT 56.5%

Blocked Shots: CGY 23, OTT 19

Hits: CGY 14, OTT 27

Takeaways: CGY 5, OTT 10

*5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 15, OTT 18

*5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 6, OTT 5

*Courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

They Said It:

Up Next:

This four-game road trip continues with stops in Detroit (Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. MT), Columbus (Friday, 1 p.m., MT) and Pittsburgh (Saturday, 5:00 p.m. MT).