Flames Collapse in Vancouver: Canucks Score Four in Third
For 40 minutes Saturday night, the Flames looked like a team that had learned something from opening night. Then the third period happened. Vancouver scored four straight at Rogers Arena, Calgary lost 4-1, and the Flames are 0-2-0 to start the season.
By Jason LaFace | Alberta Radio
Sunday, October 4, 2026
How it slipped away
Matt Coronato gave Calgary the lead on the power play at 14:51 of the first, ripping a wrist shot over the blocker of Leevi Merilainen. The second was scoreless, and the Flames carried a 1-0 lead into the final frame.
It lasted 88 seconds. At 1:28 of the third, Liam Ohgren chipped a rebound under Devin Cooley's blocker arm. Cooley spun and covered it with his glove, and the goal was waved off on the ice, but video review showed the puck had crossed the line through the webbing of his glove. "I 100 percent was like, 'That's not a goal' because I watched (myself) cover it," Cooley said afterward.
From there, the roof caved in. Ohgren set up defenceman Elias Pettersson, who pinched in from the left point and beat Cooley with a quick backhand at 9:04. At 16:33, a big neutral-zone hit by centre Elias Pettersson on Zayne Parekh sprang a 2-on-1, and Drew O'Connor finished it over Cooley's glove. Aatu Raty added an empty-netter at 17:16.
By the numbers
Cooley made 22 saves for Calgary. Merilainen stopped 23 in his first start for Vancouver since being claimed off waivers from Ottawa on Sept. 25. Ohgren, playing his 100th NHL game, finished with a goal and an assist. Tom Willander and Linus Karlsson had two assists each.
Connor Zary was a healthy scratch. Brennan Othmann drew in for his season debut and had a shot and three hits in 10:30 of ice time.
The coach's read
"We were a much different team tonight than we were our first game of the year, so there's a lot of things that we can build off of from this game," said head coach Ryan Huska. "Couple things again we got to clean up."
He's not wrong. This was a big step up from the 6-1 opening-night beating Seattle handed them on Thursday. But in this league, "better" only matters if it lasts 60 minutes. A one-goal lead on the road in the third has to be closed out. Vancouver's coach said his group simply got harder on pucks and more direct, and the game turned on a single disputed review.
Up next
No time to stew. The Flames visit the Seattle Kraken tonight at 6 p.m. MT, a rematch with the team that embarrassed them in the opener. Game 3 is already a statement game. Alberta Radio will have the result.
Source: Os1ris News Aggregation
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