It could have been a night to forget. Goal after goal after goal was called back on coaches’ challenges—a series of gut-punches that might have rattled even the most seasoned competitors.
Yet the Calgary Flames stayed composed. They stuck to the game plan, and in the end, they walked away with two points from their homestand opener against St. Louis two nights ago.
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Tonight, the team hopes to reproduce that success, though anyone in the locker room would likely prefer a cleaner 60-minute performance.
“We do have good character, we have good people in our room,” Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska said after the St. Louis game when asked about his team’s resilience. “I thought we stayed with it, even though the three (goals) were taken back.
“And I thought we stood up for each other as well, which was maybe the most important thing for me, was the way they kept connected on that side of the game.”
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Forward Connor Zary was a bright spot Wednesday against the Blues. The Saskatoon native not only scored the game’s first goal, but his slick stick handling also set up a Yegor Sharangovich goal that was later overturned by video review.
Huska noted that Zary has steadily improved throughout the season, particularly after battling injury setbacks in the second half of 2024-25.
Zary is precisely the type of player who could cement a bigger role as the regular season winds down, and that’s exactly what Huska wants to identify: players who can elevate their performance and help the team move forward.
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Florida comes to Calgary following a 4-0 shutout of the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night at Rogers Place. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 21 shots for the win, while Cole Reinhardt, former Flame A.J. Greer, Anton Lundell, and Carter Verhaeghe supplied the offense.
The victory marked the 454th of Bobrovsky’s NHL career, tying him with Curtis Joseph for seventh-most wins by a goaltender in league history.
Despite being three games over .500, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions remain 13 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Injuries have plagued the roster all season: Captain Aleksander Barkov has not played since last June’s Stanley Cup Final, and key forwards Brad Marchand and Sam Reinhart did not make the trip west.
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Reinhart leads the team with 61 points this season, while among the players on Thursday’s ice in Edmonton, former Flame Sam Bennett tops the lineup with 53 points. Florida’s win marked their first on a four-game Pacific Division road swing, which concludes in Calgary tonight.
Although the Panthers carry some momentum into tonight’s game, Calgary will look to complete a season-series sweep after a 5-3 victory at Amerant Bank Arena in late November. That Black Friday matchup saw five different Flames find the scoresheet—including Yan Kuznetsov, who recorded his first NHL goal—helping the team erase an early 2-0 deficit.
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The Flames have now won six consecutive home games against Florida, a streak that dates back to the 2018-19 season.
After 23 games this season, Zayne Parekh has tallied just two assists, highlighting the growing pains of adapting to the NHL. While his offensive instincts show flashes of potential, his overall game is still developing, and he has yet to find the consistency needed to make a sustained impact at the professional level. Despite the obvious struggles, he has been steadily increasing his ice time in recent weeks, so we’ll see if the additional playing time improves his game. If not, it might be time to send him down to the AHL.
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It’s been a rough go for Zayne Parekh. Credit: Sergei Belski
Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman have been key contributors for Calgary against the Panthers in recent matchups. Backlund has tallied one goal and two assists over his last three games versus Florida, while Coleman has added a goal and an assist during the same stretch. Florida has dropped two of their last three meetings with Calgary, though in the second-to-last contest on March 1, 2025, the Panthers earned a 3-0 shutout victory.
Tonight’s game starts at 7 p.m. local time.
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