Vladar makes 30 saves for Calgary; Ward gets goal in debut for Los Angeles
Flames at Kings | Recap
LOS ANGELES — Sam Morton and Zayne Parekh each scored in his NHL debut, and the Calgary Flames defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.
Nazem Kadri scored twice, Mikael Backlund had a goal and an assist, and Dan Vladar made 30 saves for the Flames (41-27-14), who ended the season on a four-game win streak and eight-game point streak (6-0-2). Calgary defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz and forward Aydar Suniev also each made his NHL debut.
Taylor Ward scored in his NHL debut for the Kings (48-25-9), who will host the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their Western Conference First Round series Monday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN2, SN, TVAS 2, FDSNW). David Rittich made 25 saves.
Kadri gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 2:15 of the second period when he looped around the right side of the net to beat Rittich to the short side.
Morton, an undrafted free-agent forward who played collegiately at Minnesota State Mankato before spending the past two seasons with Calgary of the American Hockey League, got to the crease to send in Ryan Lomberg’s pass on an odd-man rush to make it 2-0 at 6:05 of the third period.
Kadri got his 35th goal, extending his career-high in 16 NHL seasons, to make it 3-0 at 7:28 with a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Dryden Hunt on a 2-on-1 rush.
Parekh, the No. 9 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, redirected Backlund’s pass in from the right circle to push it to 4-0 at 8:24.
Backlund then beat Rittich with a wrist shot from the left circle to extend the lead to 5-0 at 11:35.
Ward, an undrafted free-agent forward who played collegiately at Nebraska-Omaha before spending the past four seasons with Ontario of the AHL, cleaned up Jordan Spence’s rebound on the power play for the 5-1 final at 13:49.
Calgary forward Adam Klapka did not return after sustaining an apparent lower-body injury on a reverse hit from Kevin Fiala early in the third period.
