Flames thump Flyers 5-1 to win fifth straight home game

The Calgary Flames' Connor Zary, left, celebrates his goal with teammate John Beecher in Calgary on Dec. 31, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Mikael Backlund stayed hot, notching his 10th goal on Wednesday to lead the Calgary Flames to a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Jonathan Huberdeau, Rasmus Andersson, Yegor Sharangovich and Connor Zary also scored for Calgary (18-18-4), while MacKenzie Weegar and Matt Coronato each chipped in a pair of assists.

The Flames continued to sizzle at the Scotiabank Saddledome, where they’ve won five straight and are 10-1-1 in their last 12.

Travis Konecny scored for Philadelphia (20-12-7).

Making 25 saves for his eighth straight win at home was Dustin Wolf, who evened his record at 14-14-2.

Sam Ersson, who had 20 saves, fell to 6-5-4.

Backlund got the scoring started at 13:30 of the first period, when he took a drop pass from Coronato and blasted a slap shot into the top corner to extend his point streak to six games (five goals, four assists).

Down 2-0, Konecny got the Flyers on the scoreboard at 8:49, but before the second period was over, Calgary blew the game open with a pair of power-play goals—Andersson on a two-man advantage at 12:03 and Sharangovich at 17:52.

Takeaways

Flyers: Philadelphia entered the night a perfect 10-for-10 on the penalty kill over its previous four games and sporting the league’s sixth-best penalty kill but ran into problems against the Flames’ last-place power play, surrendering multiple goals for the first time since Dec. 1 and just the third time on the season.

Flames: Winners of nine of their last 12, Calgary continued climbing back into the playoff race after a miserable start to the season. Last in the NHL on Nov. 12 with a 4-12-2 record, Calgary has the league’s fifth-best record since at 14-6-2 (.687 point percentage), only trailing Colorado (.905), Minnesota (.804), Dallas (.739) and Buffalo (.696). It has them within one point of the Los Angeles Kings, who occupy the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Key moment

Up 2-1, Calgary got a two-man advantage midway through the second period. Zary set up Andersson for a one-timer that found the back of the net with 18 seconds left in the power play.

Key stat

Backlund’s opening goal came on just the third slap shot he’s taken this season and was his first goal on a slap shot in nearly a year, dating back to Jan. 4, 2025. In 17 NHL seasons, it was just the sixth time he has scored on a slap shot.

Up next

Flyers: Travel to Edmonton to take on the Oilers on Saturday.

Flames: Host the Nashville Predators on Saturday.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press