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Calgary Flames' Kadri voices frustration with referees in loss to Utah

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
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Jan 3 2025, 1:00 pm
Calgary Flames' Kadri voices frustration with referees in loss to Utah
Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports

Calgary Flames forward Nazem Kadri didn’t mince words when asked about his rather eventful night in the penalty box.

Kadri was all over the ice in last night’s 5-3 loss to the Utah Hockey Club, scoring a goal on his six shots while also registering 12 minutes in penalties. Two of those 12 were from an interference call in the second period which he made clear in real time he didn’t like.

Soon after his interference call, he felt he was slew-footed by Utah forward Liam O’Brien. The two continued to battle several shifts later, and wound up both being assessed 10-minute misconducts.

“I think so. I think that’s how I felt, I probably wouldn’t just fall on purpose,” Kadri said when asked if he thought he was slew-footed. “Then I got a 10-minute misconduct for talking, two minutes for hitting. Not quite sure what was going on out there. I guess you just gotta fight through it.”

Despite the Flames feeling some calls didn’t go their way through the first 40 minutes, they headed into the third period with a 3-2 lead. That changed almost immediately, as Clayton Keller tied things up 37 seconds into the final frame. Less than two minutes after that, Lawson Crouse put home his second of the night, which wound up being the game winner.

“I thought it was the whole third period [that was bad] to be honest with you,” head coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought our game was coming in the second period, you had a feeling that we were going to keep that going. We had a detail issue on the first shift where they score that first goal, and a change issue on the second one. I didn’t feel like we had a lot of pushback from there.”

Rasmus Andersson agreed with that sentiment, but seemed to believe the entire game as a whole wasn’t a great effort from his team.

“I just thought we got off our game, especially in the third,” Andersson said. “Stretches we were there, stretches we weren’t. It cost us today. Not a good third period.

“Not good enough. It was just sloppy out there, honestly. Not good enough. Too many turnovers. They’ve got a lot of skill up front. You give them time and space and they’re going to score and they did.”

With the loss, the Flames record has dropped to 18-13-7 on the season. They’ll look to get back in the win column on Saturday night at the Saddledome against the Nashville Predators.

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