Canucks vs. Flames: Liam Ohgren's 100th Game Sparks a Four-Goal Third as Vancouver Beats Calgary

Devin Cooley was sure. He had watched himself smother the puck with his glove, and for a few seconds the officials on the ice agreed with him. Then the video review came back, the puck had leaked through the webbing and over the goal line, and the night belonged to the Vancouver Canucks.

Liam Ohgren's tying goal 1:28 into the third period cracked the door open, and the Canucks kicked it off the hinges with four straight goals to beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Ohgren had a goal and an assist in his 100th NHL game, and Leevi Merilainen made 23 saves in his first start for Vancouver.

Forty Minutes of Calgary Grinding It Out

This one opened with a fight and never really calmed down. Luke Schenn and Adam Klapka dropped the gloves 2:55 into the first period, and the two of them were later handed matching misconducts at 13:16 of the second. Klapka collected another misconduct late in the third, and by the final horn Calgary had piled up 37 penalty minutes to Vancouver's 21. The Canucks also outhit the Flames 34-28, so nobody left the building feeling rested.

Calgary's power play struck first. With Schenn serving an interference minor, Matt Coronato wired a wrist shot over Merilainen's blocker at 14:51 of the first for his first goal of the season, with Zayne Parekh and Joel Farabee picking up the assists. For a team that had just been flattened 6-1 by Seattle in its opener, it was a genuinely encouraging start.

Then came a scoreless second period that felt like a staring contest. Vancouver kept drawing penalties and kept coming up empty, finishing 0-for-5 with the man advantage on the night. Cooley, meanwhile, absorbed everything in front of him, and through 40 minutes Calgary had a 1-0 lead and a plan that was working.

The Review That Flipped the Night

Ohgren's goal was the hinge, and it nearly did not count. Cooley stopped the first redirect off the rush, Ohgren jabbed the rebound back at him, and the puck dribbled toward the line as Cooley spun and covered it. The call on the ice was no goal. The replay showed the puck had crossed through the webbing of his glove, and Paul Cotter and Tom Willander were credited with the assists.

Cooley was still processing it afterward. "What I think happened was I covered it and it hit this part of my glove (on the heel) and pushed underneath. I was pretty confident I didn't go in, just disappointing," he said, per NHL.com. He even floated switching to black lace in his glove pocket to make the puck harder to see.

The Canucks smelled blood. At 9:04, Ohgren spotted defenseman Elias Pettersson, listed as Elias N. Pettersson in the box score to separate him from the center who shares his name, pinching down from the left point. Ohgren slid it to him at the face-off dot and the blueliner beat Cooley's glove with a quick backhand for a 2-1 lead.

"I didn't know he had those hands, but he's been great defensively and he shows off he can do some things offensively as well," Ohgren said. "Great look and beautiful finish."

The dagger came from the other Pettersson. At 16:33, center Elias Pettersson leveled Parekh in the neutral zone, the puck popped loose, and Drew O'Connor finished the resulting 2-on-1 with a wrister over Cooley's glove. Aatu Raty added an empty-netter at 17:16, with Linus Karlsson picking up his second assist and the center Pettersson adding one of his own.

Stars of the Night

Ohgren could not have scripted the milestone much better: the tying goal, the primary assist on the winner and 17:19 of ice time in game No. 100. "It's a privilege to be in the League and to get 100 games is a big accomplishment. And to top it off with those two (points), it's a great game," he said.

Merilainen stopped 23 of 24 shots for a .958 save percentage. NHL.com noted the Canucks claimed him off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Sept. 25, and eight days later he was the steadiest player on the ice.

Willander quietly logged 20:16 and assisted on both of the first two Vancouver goals. Karlsson had two assists of his own, and Cotter extended a hot start: NHL.com noted he has at least a point in all three games and five points total (three goals, two assists).

Center Elias Pettersson did not score, but he played 22:24, threw eight hits and won 11 of 22 face-offs. The hit on Parekh was the play of the period.

For Calgary, Coronato owned the only goal, and Cooley made 22 saves on 25 shots in a performance that deserved a better ending than a puck sneaking through his glove.

Stats That Matter

• 4-0: Vancouver's scoring margin in the third period after trailing 1-0 through 40 minutes.
• 23 of 24: Merilainen's save line in his first Canucks start.
• 0-for-5: Vancouver's power play, which turned out not to matter at all.
• 37: Calgary's penalty minutes, including two misconducts for Klapka.
• 8: Hits from center Elias Pettersson, one of which created the insurance goal.

What It Means

Vancouver is 2-1-0 and bounced back from a wild 9-7 loss to Edmonton on Thursday. The win was the first at home this season for the Canucks, who are 1-1-0 at Rogers Arena. Head coach Manny Malhotra said the difference came down to simplicity. "It was more of a shift in their mindset of just playing direct and simple," he said. "There's no magic recipe for us." The Canucks host Vegas on Sunday night.

Calgary falls to 0-2-0 and is still looking for its first points. There was real progress here, though, and head coach Ryan Huska saw it. "We were a much different team tonight than we were our first game of the year, so there's a lot of things that we can build off of from this game," he said. The schedule is not doing the Flames many favors: they visit Seattle on Sunday night, a rematch with the team that beat them 6-1 in the opener.

Closing Take

Two Elias Petterssons on one roster is the Spider-Man pointing meme on skates, and on Saturday both of them had their fingerprints all over the comeback. One scored the winner. The other knocked a guy off the puck to set up the insurance. Calgary, meanwhile, will spend the flight to Seattle rewatching a puck squeeze through a glove that its goalie swore was closed. Hockey is a game of inches. Sometimes it is a game of lace.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.