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Calgary Flames all smiles after three disallowed goals: 'Only happens to us'

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
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Mar 19 2026, 12:00 pm
Calgary Flames all smiles after three disallowed goals: 'Only happens to us'
Sergei Belski/Imagn Images

The Calgary Flames’ win over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night was one that you had to see to believe.

The box score showing a 2-1 shootout victory suggests that the Flames’ season-long scoring issues continued against the Blues. That wasn’t the case, as they actually found the back of the net on four occasions.

Their first goal of the evening came less than three minutes in, as Connor Zary was able to put home his 11th of the season. After that was when the craziness ensued.

Roughly ten minutes later, the Flames appeared to make it a 2-0 game on what would have been Martin Pospisil’s second of the season. After a coach’s challenge, the goal was called back after being deemed offside.

Then, with just two minutes remaining in the first, the Flames put another on the board, or so they thought. Once again, the Blues challenged it, this time for a high-stick touch from Zary.

By this point, you could feel the frustration in the Saddledome, as it’s very unusual to see two goals overturned in the same game. The chaos wasn’t done there, either, as Joel Farabee had yet another goal come off the board in the second period after the Blues once again challenged for offside.

 

“You don’t often see one goal disallowed or two goals disallowed,” Zary said to Sportsnet’s Brendan Parker. “Three is something that only happens to us. It’s nice that we can laugh about it and come out of here with the win, but it was a weird one, for sure.”

You certainly don’t see it often. In fact, as per Ryan Pike of Flames Nation, it’s just the second time a team has had three successful challenges since they began in 2015-16.

“It was just hilarious,” said Devin Cooley, who kicked aside 26 shots on the night. “First one is like, ok, whatever. Then the second one and the third one, I was just kind of laughing in my crease. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.

“I’m glad we got the win because we definitely deserved it.”

Cooley was far from the only Flames player who felt it was a well-deserved victory, especially given the unusual circumstances.

“I think I’ve seen two taken away, I don’t know if I’ve seen three in a game,” Farabee said. “Love the effort. I think it would have been easy to let that one slip away with everything that went on.”

Head coach Ryan Huska had an interesting perspective on the unusual game.

Rather than being frustrated over the lack of luck through the first half of the game, he was quite impressed with the way the game was officiated.

“When you look at those ones, weird it happened all in one game, but I’d rather a linesman not blow down a close play to negate a potential 2-on-1 if it was onside,” Huska explained. “I think what they did was the right way to do it. It allowed them to challenge, and they were both offside. Can’t do anything about that.”

All things considered, this was a fantastic bounce-back performance from the Flames after being thumped 5-2 by the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the week. Next up will be a battle against Matthew Tkachuk and the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Friday.

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