Flames’ faith in playoff push still strong after tough 5-2 loss to Stars

“Certainly feel we got robbed tonight,” said Flames centre Nazem Kadri, who scored twice.

“Feel like if we play like that most nights, you’re going to get the result you want. Don’t think you can get discouraged with that one.”

But moral victories don’t produce two points, which the Flames need with 11 games left in the regular season to claim a playoff berth.

Calgary may have three games in hand on the St. Louis Blues, but the latter holding the Western Conference’s last wild-card berth moved six points up on the Flames with Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators.

Calgary also remained a point back of the idle Vancouver Canucks with the loss. The Flames head north to face division rival Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

“We don’t have time to dwell on it,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska said.

“What you’d like the team to recognize most nights you play like that, you win those games. We have to take a lot of the good that we did in tonight’s game and make sure we bring that to the next game in Edmonton.

“We deserved better tonight. We didn’t get it. It happens some nights. You win games that you shouldn’t, and it goes both ways over the course of a year.

“Our challenge is to make sure that our game in Edmonton mirrors this one, so we get ourselves back into the winning column again.”

Calgary had won four straight coming from behind before the Stars arrived fresh off a 4-3 win over the Oilers the previous night.

With the Stars leading 3-1, Kadri scored 16 seconds into the third period to get the Saddledome excited about another potential rally.

But when Calgary pressed deep into the Dallas zone for an equalizer with just under seven minutes to play, Dallas converted a turnover into a Mikko Rantanen back-breaking goal off the rush.

Peter DeBoer won a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference after Blake Coleman’s wrist shot beat DeSmith at 5:30 of the second period.

Calgary’s Joel Farabee standing at the crease felt his contact with DeSmith was minimal.

“Maybe touched him, barely. Thought I was outside the blue (paint),” Farabee said.

“I was told by the refs that if the shot was glove side, it was a goal, and if it was blocker side, it’s no goal. So not really sure what to think about that.”

A league review determined Connor Zary kicked the puck into the Dallas net at 14:02 of the first period.

“You’ve got guys working their ass off out there and giving everything they got and you’re scoring goals and you’ve got somebody sitting behind a desk just making a judgement call that influences the game. Two of them, that I thought,” Coleman said.

“You could put those clips side by side with a ton of different goals this year and you’re going to get different answers on every goal.

“Middle of the playoff race, we’re up 3-1 in that game with those calls going our way.”

Misfortune struck the Flames again in the third period when Zary went down clutching his left knee after Rantanen slid into him.

Huska did not have an update on Zary’s status after the game.

“The result sucks, but honestly, I thought we dominated that game,” Farabee said.

“Can’t really mope and dwell on it. If we can play that intense and that style the rest of the year, I think we’re going to get in.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Flames’ faith in playoff push still strong after tough 5-2 loss to Stars

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