On Tuesday night, the Calgary Flames began their two-game trip to Southern California with a thrilling 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

After MacKenzie Weegar scored on his birthday to give the visitors a 1-0 lead, the Flames lost Connor Zary after a horrific knee-on-knee collision in the second period.

Eventually, there was an exchange of goals between the teams that led to overtime when Jonathan Huberdeau scored the winning goal, an unusual move from the forward who leads the NHL with the most goals in the first game of the game.

Meanwhile, Dustin Wolf remains undefeated in his home state of California, which now includes two wins over the Ducks.

Who’s next?

The Flames have not yet announced the extent of Zary’s injury, but he did not finish the game against the Ducks and most likely will not be on the ice against the Los Angeles Kings later tonight.

Calgary had three healthy scratches for Tuesday’s game, two defensemen and one forward: Walker Duehr. Dühr played 12 games from December 3rd to January 2nd and has become a healthy lead in the last two games.

Related: Flames lose Zary after knee-on-knee hit in Anaheim

Despite being the logical replacement in Zary’s absence, the Flames have struggled to score goals. Would it ever make sense for someone like Rory Kerins to be drafted and auditioned?

Once the team realizes the extent of Zary’s injury, they can ultimately plan for the future and his absence, which will fill a major void.

Flames halfway to the unwanted story

The Ducks became the seventh straight opponent to score a power-play goal against the Flames, the longest streak for Calgary since 2022, when they also conceded a special teams goal in seven straight games.

The franchise record is 14 games, set in 1992, and while it’s unlikely the 2024-25 team will reach that mark, they’re now halfway there. The Flames next play against the Kings, who enter the contest with a power play success rate of 16%.

Considering how poorly the Nashville Predators and Ducks performed before their games in Calgary, the Flames will have to work hard to keep the Kings off the field and not extend the series to eight games, a number not reached since 2006 became.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before…

The Flames got a much-needed overtime win thanks to Huberdeau scoring the game-winner and Nazem Kadri early in the contest, making the final score 2-1.

They have combined for 32 goals, accounting for 30.4% of the Flames’ 105 goals this season. Interestingly, Tuesday night marked the eighth time the duo scored in the same game this season, with Calgary improving to 5-3-0 in those games.

Ultimately, the Flames will only move up in the standings if Huberdeau and Kadri continue to score. Despite several other players hitting multiple posts against the Ducks, the second score is still not reached, and now that Zary is no longer in the lineup, more skaters need to step up their games.

Flames & Ducks Trivia Answers

How did you do in our match day quiz? Here are the answers.

1. Olli Jokinen

2. Andrei Kuzmenko

3. Jarome Iginla

4. Theo Fleury

5. Jarome Iginla

6. Miikka Kiprusoff

7. Rick Tabaracci

8. Curtis McElhinney

9. Rob Niedermeyer

10. German Titov