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Farabee Ends Breakaway Drought in Flames' OT Win
Joel Farabee snapped an 0-for-7 breakaway skid with a clutch short-handed goal Sunday, lifting Calgary to a 4-3 overtime win over Philadelphia.
Joel Farabee had one thing on his mind when Martin Pospisil chipped the puck to him in the third period Sunday: be a dekker. The Calgary Flames winger converted his first breakaway of the season on the penalty kill to tie the game, and Matt Coronato finished it off in overtime for a 4-3 Flames win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The goal ended a frustrating 0-for-7 stretch on breakaways for Farabee, who leads Calgary in scoring with seven goals and 10 assists through the team's first 18 games.
A Conversation That Changed Everything
Farabee said he sought out teammate Jake Middleton to work through what was going wrong on those one-on-one chances.
"Mids and I sat down and we talked about it and he said I'm a deker," Farabee said. "Literally when I got the puck, that's what was in my head."
Going inside-outside, forehand-backhand, he beat Flyers goalie Dan Vladar cleanly. The goal drew a roar from the Calgary crowd at a moment when the Flames badly needed a spark.
"You go oh-for-seven on breakaways, you sit down and start to think like, 'what am I doing wrong here?'" Farabee said.
Head coach Ryan Huska, who said at the start of the season he expected big things from the 26-year-old, was pleased to see him break through.
"Joel hasn't had a lot of success on breakaways this year so it was a perfect time for him to score his first tonight," Huska said. "With Joel, when he's getting chances he's playing well."
Defencemen Step Into the Breach
The Flames had more than a breakaway drought to manage on Sunday. The team confirmed earlier in the day that defenceman Kevin Bahl, a New Westminster, B.C., native, requires surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon and is done for the season.
Bahl had been Calgary's most-used blueliner at just under 22 minutes per game. He suffered the injury during dryland warm-up before Friday's 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
The defence corps responded in the most direct way possible: by putting pucks in the net. Zach Whitecloud scored his first goal as a Flame, and Zane Parekh added another, with defencemen accounting for two of Calgary's four goals.
"Every guy has to step up. I feel like I'm pushing myself to step up," Parekh said. "Bahler was our best player all year and our best defenceman, so losing him, it's tough. You just keep putting your best foot forward for him."
In Goal and in the Record Books
Devin Cooley made 32 saves in his first game back after missing five with a lower-body injury, improving to 5-3 on the season with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage.
Coronato's overtime winner also kept an impressive franchise streak alive. Calgary has now won 62 consecutive games in which they score four or more goals, a run dating back to 2023 that ranks second all-time behind the New York Rangers, who strung together 65 such wins between 2011 and 2014.
Where the Flames Stand
At 8-9-1, Calgary is still searching for consistency, but Sunday's win showed the kind of depth that keeps a team competitive through adversity. Losing your minute-eating shutdown defenceman for the season would derail plenty of clubs. The Flames answered by getting contributions up and down the lineup, from a winger shaking off a mental block to blueliners filling a sudden void. With Farabee finding his touch and Cooley back between the pipes, Calgary has reasons to feel good heading into the week.