Flames end tough trip with point in OT loss to Stars
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DALLAS -- Joel Farabee saved his best game of his young Calgary Flames career for the end of a gruelling six-game road trip that saw his club take on several Stanley Cup contenders. The Flames ended the trip with a tough 3-2 overtime loss to a Dallas Stars team they were leading 2-0 early in the second period. Stars star Jason Robertson scored twice, including the overtime winner.
Heading into Trade Deadline Day on Friday, Calgary sits neck-and-neck with the Vancouver Canucks in the race for the second wild-card spot.
Farabee, in his 12th game after being acquired along with Morgan Frost at the end of January, scored on a breakaway two minutes into the game, was hard on the forecheck, and has started to form a chemistry with veterans Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman.
“I think so,” Farabee assessed, when asked if he felt it was his best outing with his new team.
“I’m really starting to click with Backs and Coles...two veteran guys that I’m playing with. Just talking with them throughout the day, on the bench, things like that, that’s really been helping me. Each game I go, I feel a little more comfortable.”
Since Coleman arrived in Calgary in 2021, Flames coaches have put rookies, new players, and struggling teammates on his line with Backlund. They feel the two veterans play the game responsibly at both ends of the rink, have chemistry, and are the ideal teachers for identity the club wants to embody. This season alone, Farabee, Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Dryden Hunt, and Yegor Sharangovich have been with the two leaders.
Coleman praised Farabee’s night.
“He’s a similar-minded player,” he said. “He does a lot of little things in the game really well. He competes hard for pucks, he’s got good touch around the net as we saw tonight, and he’s a good forechecker. He fits right in with the way we play.”
The Plano, Texas native also pointed out how challenging a mid-season trade can be on a player.
“I’ve been traded before,” he said. “Sometimes, you just get more and more comfortable with systems and your surroundings. There’s life away from the rink that needs to get figured out too.”
Backlund praised Farabee and the whole group for their effort during a challenging stretch that could have ended their playoff hopes. Calgary comes out of arguably their toughest road trip of the season with six points in 12 games along with thousands of miles logged in the air. They return to Calgary for an early game on Saturday versus the Montreal Canadiens.
“We knew going in, it was going to be a hard trip,” Backlund said. “We played a lot of good teams, a lot of travel. To go .500, it’s pretty good. A big win tonight would have made it a really good trip, but...we’ve got to shift focus and go home.”
The goal now is to exceed that.
“We need more than .500 the rest of the way, I feel like, if we’re going to get ourselves to where we want to be,” head coach Ryan Huska said.
“But these are tough teams that we played. There’s a lot of miles that were put on us this trip, and for the last game of the trip and to play against a team of their quality, I was pleased with the guys’ preparation and their work ethic tonight. So, we’ll take it.
“Now the most important game of the year becomes our next one on Saturday in Calgary.”