The Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken both finished with 81 points last year in the Western Conference and missed the NHL playoffs by 17 points.
Both organizations vowed during the off-season to do much better and make efforts to ice playoff contending teams this season.
The visiting Calgary Flames showed Sunday night that they intend to walk that talk as they scored three unanswered goals in the first period and then skated to a 6-1 pre-season win over the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
Despite being outshot 14-10 in the opening period, Clark Bishop, Matt Coronato and Adam Klapka put pucks past Kraken netminder Philipp Grubauer before the game was 12 minutes old.
And despite being outshot 13-9 in the second period, Jeremie Poirier scored the lone goal of the frame to boost the Flames’ lead to 4-0.
Adam Klapka and Martin Frk scored for the Flames in the third period and Nathan Villeneuve replied for the Kraken to break Dustin Wolf’s shutout bid. Wolf ended up stopping 33 of 34 shots.
Coronato, Samuel Honzek and Hunter Brzustewicz each chipped in with two assists for the Flames.
Grubauer finished the night stopping 15 of 19 shots, while Ales Stezka stopped six of eight in the final period for the Kraken.
UP NEXT
Flames: Split squads play the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, with each team hosting a game.
Kraken: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2024.