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Noah Hanifin collected four assists while goaltender Jacob Markstom made 27 saves to help the Calgary Flames defeat the Seattle Kraken, 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 17,151 at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.Ā
Calgary won their third straight meeting leaving the Kraken one last chance to grab a win in the season series, Tuesday in a rematch on Flames home ice. Markstrom made 11 saves in the third period, stopping a a pair of third period Kraken power play opportunities with less than ten minutes left.Ā
āTheir goaltender became the difference in the second half of that hockey game, especially on specialty teams,ā said head coach Dave Hakstol.Ā
Karson Kuhlman scored the only goal for the Kraken, an encouraging game-tying response marker just 1:05 after Blake Colemanās deflection at the net put the Flames on the board, 3:55 into the game.Ā
The Kraken were less than a minute away from escaping the first period against the division leading Flames with a tied score until Trevor Lewisā deflection at the net put Calgary ahead, 2-1 with 17 seconds left in the period.Ā
Michael Stoneās one-timer at the left circle, on the power play put Calgary up 3-1, with 11:21 left in the second period and the Flames, taking three penalties in a span of 3:56, extinguished the Kraken power play which included 53 seconds of five-on-three time.Ā
āWe did a good job getting in the zone, and once you get in, finding the first opportunity with a shooting mentality,ā said Hakstol.Ā
āWe didnāt get the finished product ā end of the day, thatās what counts. We need to find the back of the net on one of those. But in terms of execution and getting in the zone, we did a lot of real good things.āĀ
Tyler Toffoli put the game away with an empty netter, on a six-on-four Kraken situation, with 1:27 left.Ā
Both teams will wrap up the season series at Scotiabank Saddledome, 6pm PT on Tuesday (93.3 KJR / Kraken Audio Network).Ā
āDefinitely a benefit seeing them in a couple days again,ā said Kuhlman. āI think weāll get down to business, our coaches do a great job of breaking it down for us and just getting us back the way we know we can play.āĀ
KRAKEN LINEUP VS. CALGARY, APR. 9:
Donato-Wennberg-Eberle
Rask-Gourde-Lind
McCann-Geekie-Kuhlman
Donskoi-Sheahan-Sprong
Dunn-Larsson
Soucy-C. Fleury
Oleksiak-Borgen
Grubauer
Driedger