Flames earn 5-1 season-ending victory over league-worst Sharks

The Calgary Flames' Adam Klapka celebrates his first NHL goal with teammate MacKenzie Weegar in Calgary on April 18, 2024. The Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Blake Coleman scored his 30th goal and MacKenzie Weegar netted his 20th as the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Thursday night in the season-ending game 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 blueliners behind only Roman Josi (23) and Cale Makar (21).

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“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,” 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, offence 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 postseason for the second straight season.

Dustin Wolf had 16 saves and lost his shutout bid 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 playoffs 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 on Monday in Edmonton, Cooley (2-3-1) allowed five goals on 23 shots before being replaced by Georgi Romanov (14 saves).

“It's just tough to end like that. It's just not the way we wanted to go out,” Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs said.

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 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 rising shot from the blue line found the back of the net at 6:56.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 18, 2024.