CALGARY, Canada—A historic NHL occasion matching two California-born goaltenders went well for one but not the other Thursday night.
Blake Coleman’s 30th goal of the season and MacKenzie Weegar’s 20th carried the Calgary Flames to a 5–1 victory over the NHL-worst San Jose Sharks in the season-finale for both teams.
The game was the first ever in the NHL to feature two starting goalies from California. Calgary’s Dustin Wolf, a native of Gilroy, south of San Jose, registered 16 saves and nearly recorded a shutout, giving up the only Sharks goal with nine seconds left in the game. A 23-year-old rookie, Wolf closed the season with four straight wins and a record of 7–7–1.
San Jose rookie Devin Cooley didn’t fare nearly as well, being pulled for the second straight game. The native of Los Gatos, near San Jose, gave up eight goals on 22 shots Monday in Edmonton, and then surrendered five goals on 23 shots to the Flames. Cooley (2–3–1) was replaced by another rookie, Georgi Romanov, who made 14 saves.
“It’s just tough to end like that,“ Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs said. ”It’s just not the way we wanted to go out.”
Weegar, a defenseman, had never had more than eight goals in a season. The jump to 20 tied the 30-year-old for third among NHL blue-liners behind only Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators (23) and the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar (21).
“After I scored, just the sincerity of the congratulations from everybody. When they come up to you after and they say how proud they are of you and the little things like that, it goes a long way for me,” Weegar said.
More impressive for Calgary Coach Ryan Huska, Weegar became the first NHL player to score 20 goals while also blocking 200 shots.
“That’s the hard part of the game,” Mr. Huska said. “Where over and over you’re doing it again and again and you’re not feeling good, and you put yourself in those positions and you continually play through it.
“When you look at MacKenzie, you’d have to say he was one of our more consistent players this year. So, I thought he did a really good job leadership-wise, offense from the back end for us. But then you have the intangibles that he brings. He’s a competitor.”
Adam Klapka posted his first NHL goal, and Oliver Kylington and Kevin Rooney also scored for Calgary (38–39–5). The Flames missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose (19–54–9), which missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. Mikael Granlund had an assist and finished the season with a 13-game point streak (two goals, 13 assists).
Calgary jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period, scoring twice in a three-minute span.
Klapka opened the scoring at 12:13. Coleman’s goal was an easy tap-in at the side of the net after he was set up on a perfect pass from Connor Zary.
Coleman, who reached 30 goals for the first time, had missed the previous four games with an upper-body injury. Coleman’s previous career best was 22 goals with the New Jersey Devils in 2018–19.
Calgary blew the game open early in the second with three more goals in a span of just more than three minutes.
Kylington whipped a point shot into the top corner at 3:53, Rooney picked the top corner at 5:59, and Weegar’s rising shot from the blue line found the back of the net at 6:56.
