CALGARY — Mika Zibanejad scored twice in the second period and the New York Rangers beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday night, in a game the Flames will remember for the chances they did not finish.
New York's advantage in speed was evident all night, and after a scoreless first period the Rangers turned it into goals. Zibanejad opened the scoring 59 seconds into the second, from in close, on a wrist shot set up by Alexis Lafrenière and Marcus Pettersson. He struck again at 10:52, on the power play, taking a feed across the ice and putting a one timer back against Devin Cooley's movement, inside the post to the goaltender's left. Pavel Dorofeyev and Lafrenière drew the assists.
The Flames had their looks. Joel Farabee got a clean chance from the faceoff dot and shot it straight into Joonas Korpisalo's chest, and he could be heard swearing about it from the stands. Farabee and Zayne Parekh each had at least one more clean look and put those right at the goaltender as well, making for easy saves. Korpisalo finished with 30 saves. Parekh did pull off a spin move in the offensive zone to get away from a defender, only to take a heavy hit that had the whole Rangers bench on its feet.
Early in the third, Zach Whitecloud and Jake Middleton were the pair on the ice for a Rangers breakaway, and were fortunate it never produced a shot on goal. Adam Klapka then took the night's strangest penalty. With an official's arm already up for a tripping call against him, Klapka cross checked a Ranger into the boards, a sequence that looked like two penalties and was assessed as one, a cross checking minor at 2:11. On the ensuing power play, Joel Hanley took a scoring chance away at the side of the net but was soft on the clear and turned it over, New York resumed its pressure and rang a shot off the post or the crossbar.
Calgary's goal came on the power play too. Matt Coronato was pulled down by Vladislav Gavrikov at 5:47, and at 7:41 the Flames cashed in. Parekh kept the puck in at the blue line on the backhand, it was worked down to Yegor Sharangovich and then to the corner for Ryan Strome, and Strome centred it in front for Klapka, who pushed his fourth goal of the season in from short range along the ice with 12:19 left.
The push kept coming. Coronato and Mikael Backlund worked the give and go repeatedly, Backlund got in position for a tap in off a shot from the right point by Simon Nemec and later had an in close wrist shot stopped low on the blocker side. Cooley made a big save from in close inside the last five minutes to keep it a one goal game, and the Flames pulled him for the extra attacker with about 1:40 remaining, outshooting New York 30-23 at that point. Sharangovich had a chance in front that appeared to catch a defender's stick, Coronato stepped into a wrist shot from the high slot that went off Korpisalo's glove, and Nemec denied a Rangers empty net goal before Tye Kartye finally hit the empty net at 19:53, from J.T. Miller, to close it out.
Cooley made 21 saves for Calgary. The Flames outshot the Rangers 31-24 and went 1 for 2 on the power play. New York went 1 for 3.
This recap is brought to you in part by Animas Painting — interior and exterior painting in Calgary. Reach Rafael at 403-604-5529.