There was nothing pretty about Connor Zary’s overtime winner against the Boston Bruins.
For a Calgary Flames power-play unit that has found goals exceedingly hard to come-by, though, who cares about being pretty? The puck found the back of the net. That’s got to provide some sweet relief to go along with the two points that their 2-1 win earned them.
And who knows, maybe it can be the catalyst to something better for the Flames when they’re on the man advantage.
Slumping forwards often talk about just needing to score a greasy one to get back on track. Maybe the same goes for power-play units?
“We hope so,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “You get into games like this where it’s in the mud a lot and you get an advantage, you have to find a way to capitalize or at least generate momentum so when we go back out five-on-five the building is going again and we can try to put them on their heels.
“It’s something we have to improve. It has to get better for us because the tight games we’re in right now, you have to find a way for your power-play to be the difference in games.”
Here are three takeaways from Monday’s win over the Bruins:
1. ABOUT THE POWER-PLAY
Honestly, who knows if Zary’s goal will actually open the floodgates for the Flames power-play unit.
They weren’t effective against the Bruins, going 1-for-5 in the end, and they haven’t been very good lately in general. Prior to Zary’s OT winner, the Flames had gone 1-for-24 on the power-play over the last eight games.
Over the course of the entire season, they’ve converted on only 13.6% of their opportunities, which is worst in the entire NHL.
The Flames have experimented with shifting around who plays on the unit, but it hasn’t generated any notable improvements.
“Shifting the personnel around, I don’t like doing because much like keeping lines together, when you have guys who have been on the ice on the power-play a lot together, they know where they’re going to be,” Huska explained. “It hasn’t been getting us the results we need.”
In overtime, it did. The goal itself came after Yegor Sharangovich had lobbed a puck on net and it appeared that the Bruins’ Hampus Lindholm knocked it in. Somewhere in there, Zary touched the puck, too.
Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato celebrates with forward Blake Coleman after Coleman scored on the Boston Bruins during NHL action at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Monday December 29, 2025.Gavin Young/Postmedia
2. ON A ROLL
How good has Blake Coleman been recently?
Really good, is the simple answer.
Coleman came up big in the second period to tie things up after Andrew Peeke had given the Bruins the lead. He received a pass from the also-excellent Mikael Backlund that landed right on the tape and then fired it past Jeremy Swayman.
It was his team-leading 12th of the season.
“He’s been great, really,” Huska said “When you look at probably the past month-and-a-half, you have to put him as our top player every night. The way he approaches games, the way he’s competitive right now, he’s almost willing the people around him to be better.”
There’s a lot more to Coleman’s game than just scoring goals, of course, but for a team that doesn’t light the lamp often, his contributions around the net are massive.
“He’s the Texas Tiger, he’s excellent,” said Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf. “He gets around the net. He’s a physical player. He gets in the corners. But Husk kind of said he didn’t have some hands early in the year, so he’s kind of showing those off lately. It’s awesome. We need guys to contribute like that and he’s been stepping up huge.”
3. SAVING THE DAY
It feels a bit irresponsible to have waited this long to focus-in on Wolf’s performance against the Bruins. The reality is that the Flames weren’t winning this game without him.
In overtime, he came up with two huge saves on Pavel Zacha and Nikita Zadorov. They were game-savers, literally.
“Without that, we’re not feeling quite as good as we are right now,” Coleman said. “He made a few really big ones, a couple backdoor plays.
“He’s the reason we got two points tonight.”
It can feel repetitive singing Wolf’s praises game-after-game. He stopped 24-of-25 shots against the Bruins, but that’s pretty much expected. It’s the standard he’s set.
“I always expect saves from him,” Huska said. “He’s a really good goaltender. I have a lot of confidence when he’s in the net.”