Zary, Flames recover for OT win against Canucks in opener

VANCOUVER -- Connor Zary scored 1:33 into overtime, and the Calgary Flames recovered for a 6-5 win against the Vancouver Canucks in the season opener for each team at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.

Zary skated around defenseman Filip Hronek in the slot, cut back the other way and around Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs to tuck it in on the far side, giving the Flames a win despite giving up the tying goal late in the third period.

“Even when they scored that (tying) goal, someone yelled on the bench ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter boys. Let’s go right back at them,’” Zary said. “I think that's kind of the mentality we have to have all year, is we're going to go down a bit, or we're going to get knocked down, but we're always going to keep coming back and, like I said, just building shift by shift, brick by brick.”

There were plenty of comebacks for Calgary in this game.

The Flames trailed 4-1 entering the second period before rallying with four straight goals, including three in the third to take a 5-4 lead midway through before J.T. Miller tied it off the rush with 1:37 remaining and Silovs pulled for the extra skater. He scored on a slap shot over Dan Vladar’s glove from just above the left face-off dot.

“Little things like that, it almost helps us moving forward,” said Zary, who also had an assist. “They score a last-minute goal, but we still come back and win that game.”

Anthony Mantha, Rasmus Andersson and Martin Pospisil each had a goal and an assist, and Nazem Kadri had two assists for the Flames, who finished 28 points behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division last season. Vladar made 20 saves.

“There's no quit,” Calgary captain Mikael Backlund said. “We believe in ourselves, and we're going to fight ’til the end. So, no matter who the opponent is, we're going to go out every night and try and win games.”

Brock Boeser scored twice, Miller had a goal and an assist, and Quinn Hughes had two assists for Vancouver. Silovs made 20 saves.

“Just got too comfortable and I think we thought it was going to be easy, and they just outcompeted us those last two periods,” Boeser said. “Everyone can see it, and obviously we know it's unacceptable, so we have to learn from it.”

The Flames were outshooting the Canucks 11-3 in the second when Andersson made it 4-2 at 17:01 with a wrist shot over Silovs’ glove from the top right hashmark.

“We just sort of played a little bit more responsibly,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said of what changed after the first period. “We had numbers above the puck, and I think the composure started to creep back into our game once we scored that second goal, and then it was an entertaining game. It just kind of took off from there.”

Pospisil cut it to 4-3 at 2:41 of the third with a screened shot over Silovs’ blocker from between the top of the face-off circles.

MacKenzie Weegar tied it 4-4 on the power play at 8:16 with a high blocker point shot before Jonathan Huberdeau put Calgary ahead 5-4 at 10:40 by knocking in a rebound from the edge of the crease.

“We don't win any battles. We just played loose, like summer hockey,” Miller said. “We need to learn and raise our intensity. That's a team over there that wanted to win more than we did today, and without the power play, they outplayed us.”

Daniel Sprong gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead on the power play at 9:40 of the first period with a high glove screen shot from the top of the right circle.

Boeser extended it to 2-0 on another power play at 11:48, getting open in the slot and one-timing a pass from Jake DeBrusk below the goal line past Vladar’s blocker.

The Canucks pushed it to 3-0 at 12:16 after Nils Hoglander’s rising shot from the bottom of the left circle knocked Vladar’s mask off. The rebound bounced off a Flames defender to Conor Garland for a quick shot into an open net from the other side of the slot and referees ruled it a “continuous scoring opportunity.”

Mantha cut it to 3-1 at 15:49 with a short-handed goal after coming out of the penalty box following a Vancouver 5-on-3, intercepting a pass and scoring on a breakaway deke five-hole. But Boeser scored his second goal to make it 4-1 at 17:18 just after the second Calgary penalty expired, redirecting a backdoor pass from Miller.

“After the power plays ended, they just worked really hard, so you got to tip your cap, and we made it easy on them,” Miller said. “We give them every chance to get back into the game, and they took advantage of some of their looks.”

NOTES: Huska said that Flames forward Kevin Rooney was “doing fine” after leaving the game at 7:41 of the first period following a big hit from Miller. Rooney was attended to by medical staff after lying prone for several minutes, but skated off with assistance as a stretcher was brought out. … Miller played in his 800th NHL game. … DeBrusk had an assist in his Canucks debut after signing a seven-year, $38.5 million contract on July 1.