CALGARY — It’s the little victories Calgary Flames fans will have to embrace.
On Saturday night there were plenty of them.
Despite moving to 0-5 for the first time in Flames history to open a season, the takeaway in town will be Aydar Suniev’s first NHL goal, a sharp-angled finish that marked the second-straight game Flames fans had a memory to cling to.
Two nights after Jonathan Castagna’s NHL debut included an assist in front of his emotional mother, Suniev tied a tight game with Anaheim by corralling a Matt Coronato pass and firing from the side of the net to beat Ville Husso.
And in a rebuilding season in which the best moments will almost certainly revolve around youngsters finding their footing in the NHL, these two AHL call-ups from earlier in the week have done well to set the tone as reminders of what this season is all about.
“It’s so great — you dream about it, scoring your first goal, and here it is,” beamed Suniev, 21, who exhibited plenty of feistiness and speed throughout the evening.
“Thanks Matty for the pass. I was so happy for that.”
Suniev is a 2023 third-round draft pick of the Flames and has played parts of three seasons with the team, totalling nine games.
None will be more memorable for the Russian whose 45 goals and 90 points in 50 games with Penticton demonstrated his scoring upside.
Suniev, remember, led the Flames in scoring in the pre-season, and was the most logical player to be promoted when Connor Zary was demoted to the Wranglers.
One game after making his season debut on the checking line, Suniev was promoted to the top line with Morgan Frost and Coronato, where he seemed to have a bit of chemistry as the trio created a few good scoring chances.
Despite piecing together their best, most complete effort of the season so far, the game ended much the same as the previous four, with the Flames losing 4-2 to a Ducks team that got the winner with a five-hole finish from Ryan Poehling who appeared to injure his left knee seconds after scoring while crashing into the post.
“I thought that was our best game to date,” said Huska, whose team trailed 3-2 in the third before Nikita Nesterenko added the insurance marker with three minutes left.
“There were a lot of good things from individuals and the team. I think they know they played well tonight and we’re in a stretch where some bounces are going against us. We didn’t earn those the first games of the year. Lately we’ve been playing better so eventually those will turn around for us and we’ll start to see some results.”
Youngsters of interest who had solid outings included Coronato (two assists), and Simon Nemec who was more noticeable, engaged and effective as he has been since arriving in Calgary. He finished the night with an assist, was plus-2 and played a team-high 23:37.
Matvei Gridin, who played the evening on the second line with Martin Pospisil and Ryan Strome, made several brilliant passes to create chances, and was dangerous throughout the night.
Dustin Wolf made 24 saves on the night, coming up big midway through the second period when he prevented Nesterenko from putting the Ducks up 3-1 by stopping him on a breakaway. It was an important bounce-back effort after surrendering six goals in each of his first two starts.
Kevin Bahl, one of the franchise pillars moving forward, set a great tone with the hit of the night mere minutes in when he caught Sam Colangelo with his head down in the neutral zone, delivering a clean check that rocked the Duck and drew an invitation to fight from Jeff Malott that he brushed off.
Jacob Middleton replaced Bahl mid-shift and was spurned by Malott when the offer to fight was asked about.
“(Bahl) came over to us as a six or seventh defenceman and now he’s a legit top-pairing guy now,” said Huska, excited about the sort of progression he hopes to see from other youngsters as the season progresses.
“Tonight he was excellent. To me he was our best player on the ice. I’m really proud of the way he’s developed and brought his game along, and as we talked about a lot last year he’s added that physical component.”
Plenty of encouraging signs from a team that was in this one right until the final few minutes — something they hadn’t been able to say before.
The Lines
Suniev – Frost – Coronato
Gridin – Pospisil – Strome
Sharangovich – Backlund – Farabee
Tsyplakov – Castagna – Klapka
Bahl – Nemec
Kuznetsov – Whitecloud
Middleton – Parekh
Wolf
