Achi news desk-
Blake Coleman scored his 30th goal and MacKenzie Weegar netted his 20th as the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1 Thursday night in the season finale for both teams.
Weegar had never had more than eight goals in a season. The jump to 20 tied the 30-year-old for third among blues players behind only Josi Roman (23) and Cale Makar (21).
“After I scored, just the sincerity of the congratulations from everyone. When they come up to you afterwards and they say how proud they are of you and the little things like that, it goes a long way for me,” said Weegar.
More impressively for Calgary coach Ryan Huska, Weegar became the first NHL player to score 20 goals while also blocking 200 shots.
“That’s the tough part of the game,” Huska said. “Where over and over you do it over and over and you don’t feel good, and you put yourself in those positions and you play all the time continuously.
“When you look at MacKenzie, you’d have to say he’s been one of our more consistent players this year. So I thought he did a really good job leadership in terms of leading an offense from the back end for us. But then you have the intangibles that it comes with.
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“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 postseason for the second season in a row.
Dustin Wolf had 16 saves and missed his shutout attempt with nine seconds left in the game. The 23-year-old rookie closed the season with four straight wins and a record of 7-7-1.
Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose (19-54-9), which finished with the worst record in the NHL. The Sharks have missed the play-offs in the last five seasons. Mikael Granlund had an assist and finished the season with a 13-game point streak (two goals, 13 assists).
Sharks starting goaltender Devin Cooley was pulled for the second straight game. After giving up eight goals on 22 shots Monday in Edmonton, Cooley (2-3-1) allowed five goals on 23 shots before being replaced by Georgi Romanov (14 saves).
“It’s hard to end like that. It wasn’t the way we wanted to go out,” said Sharks defender Kyle Burroughs.
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 by 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 New Jersey in 2018-19.
Calgary blew the game open early in the second with three more goals in a span of just over 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 shot rising from the blue line found the back of the net at 6:56.
& copy 2024 The Associated Press