Coleman: Flames finally burned after playing 'with fire'
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The Calgary Flames suffered their first regulation loss of the season on Thursday, falling 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Flames fell behind 3-0 in the first 22 minutes of the game and could not climb all the way back despite pushing for an equalizer in the third period.
"We were just a little flat for the first 25 minutes of the game, 30 minutes of the game," Flames forward Blake Coleman said, per NHL.com. "We gave a good team a few power-play opportunities and they cash in. But I thought the response was good. We were never out of the game. We came back and made it a one-goal game with a chance to tie it late.
"We've played with fire a little bit getting behind in some games, and you're not going to come back every time. Just take it as a lesson to start on time and go from there."
The Flames (5-1-1) erased two one-goal deficits in their 4-3 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this week and memorably stormed back from down 3-0 and 4-1 to defeat the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in overtime in their season opener earlier this month.
Flames goaltender Dan Vladar saw his season record drop to 2-1-1 with Thursday's loss. He allowed three goals on 42 shots and now owns a .904 save percentage and a 2.73 goals-against average as he shares work with Dustin Wolf (3-0-0).
"We know what we have in this locker room," Vladar said post-game. "We have a bunch of really good leaders here and we are all really good friends, like one big family. We have no doubt in ourselves. We know we are good. We just have to play like the last 30 minutes."
The surprising Flames will look to get back on track on Saturday against the red-hot Winnipeg Jets, who remain undefeated at 7-0-0.