Flames, Canucks each earn a win in exhibition doubleheader
Posted Sep 16, 2019 11:26 pm.
CALGARY — Jake Virtanen scored twice, including the overtime winner, as the Vancouver Canucks opened the pre-season with a 3-2 comeback win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday.
After tying the game with just over four minutes left in the third, Virtanen won it 1:32 into extra time, ripping a wrist shot past Cam Talbot on a two-on-one, a sequence that came after a TJ Brodie turnover.
It was one of two split-squad games between the Pacific Division rivals on Monday.
Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Frolik scored for Calgary. Mitch Eliot also scored for the Canucks.
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Calgary iced the far more experienced line-up and it showed in the first 40 minutes.
The Flames had the Canucks hemmed in early, reeling off the first 14 shots on goal. The shots were 18-2 after one period and 30-7 after two before Vancouver climbed back into the game with two goals in the third.
Canucks goaltender Richard Bachman played the full game and made 36 stops.
In Victoria, Austin Czarnik scored two goals to lead the Flames to a 4-3 win Monday over the Canucks.
The Flames were leading 4-1 late in the third period, but goals by Canucks Josh Teves and Bo Horvat with less than three minutes remaining in regulation time made the game close.
Czarnik, a former Boston Bruin, scored in the first and second periods. His first-period goal was on a goalmouth scramble while the second came from a blast just inside the right face-off circle midway through the second period, beating Canuck goalie Mike DiPietro.
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Dillion Dube and Rasmus Andersson scored the other goals for the Flames.
Next action for the Flames will be on Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks at the Saddledome, puck drop is at 7 p.m.
