Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
New Year’s Eve, Alberta Canada, Philadelphia Flyers vs the Calgary Flames. The Flyers are on the second night of a back-to-back after defeating the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Samuel Ersson gets the start as former Flame Dan Vladar gets a round of applause on the bench from the Calgary fans. The Flyers have two former team mates playing for the Flames in Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee.
Philly vs Calgary
This game got off to a speedy start, lots of energy, almost sloppy in fact. Play was up and back, up and back. Banging bodies, losing track of pucks, both teams looked a bit scattered.
Calgary was the first to crack the code. On the rush Mikael Backlund fired a slap shot from the slot that beat Ersson glove side with 6:30 left in the opening period. The shot did not seem to trigger a reaction from Ersson’s glove hand which is never a good sign.
The Flyers created some decent chances early on. Ristolainen and Juulsen both hit iron. Risto may have hit it twice. But close is no cigar.
Give and Take
Early in the 2nd period Huberdeau fired a puck through traffic that was redirected into the net by Morgan Frost at 16:52. It was later ruled that Frost never touched the puck.
Less than a minute later at 15:48 Nick Seeler fired a puck through traffic down the other end that beat Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf.
The play was reviewed and it was ruled that Grundstrom was guilty of goaltender interference. NO GOAL.
Deja Vu
At 11:11 on a rush into the Calgary zone it was #11 Travis Konecny hitting Christian Dvorak in the slot with a pass. Dvorak directed the puck on goal and it slowly eluded the Flames goaltender. It was later ruled that Dvorak never touched the puck. The puck crawled across the crease before being tapped in by a defensemen. The ruling on the ice was again NO GOAL. Trevor Zegras began the protest immediately. After some discussion the goal was rightfully awarded to the Flyers.
Midway through the middle period the Flyers found themselves attempting to kill off a long 5-on-3 Calgary power-play. They hung in there for a while before Rasmus Andersson put a clapper behind Ersson to give the Flames a 3-1 lead. Que the chippy-ness.
Special Teams
The 5-on-5 format seemed to totally disappear from the game. After the 5-on-3 it was 4-on-4 for a while. Then the Flyers picked up a delay of game penalty. The Flames picked up their second power-play goal of the game when Yegor Sharangovich beat Ersson glove side with 2:08 left in the period.
Out with the old
This game went into the final regulation period of the year with the Flames leading 4-1. A tall order for the Orange and Black.
The Flame became focused on getting pucks deep and mucking things up in the Flyers end, eating up the clock, and taking advantage when the opportunity arose.
A bad turnover in the Flyers end led to the 5th Calgary goal. Connor Zary snapped one. in with 9:37 left in the third. This game was all but out of reach as 2025 was quickly winding down.
In with the new
To their credit the Flyers played to till the horn. No one wants to end the year on a low note that’s for sure. But if the Flyers continue at the pace they’ve set in the first half of this season 2026 could be fun.
We all know the Flyers are in a rebuild and this is not the finished product. Things are definitely going in the right direction and Flyers Fans have a lot to look forward to.
Happy New Year folks, thanks for everything.
About Author
