Calgary Flames forward Ilya Kuzmenko made his return to the lineup after a seven-game healthy scratch but committed two costly penalties in a 4-1 loss to . The second penalty, for playing with a broken stick, led to a power-play goal that sealed the victory for .
A healthy scratch in seven of Calgary's previous eight games, Kuzmenko finally drew back into the Flames' lineup only to take two costly penalties in a 4-1 loss to theThe second for playing with a broken stick at 10:04 of the second, again led to an O'Reilly power-play goal to make it 2-0.On the second that resulted in what turned out to be the winning goal, Kuzmenko's stick snapped as he went to tee up a shot from inside the blue line.
As the puck trickled forward, he chased after it and kicked it up toMagnifying the 28-year-old's mistakes was Calgary's inability to kill off either penalty, which has been a chronic problem of late. The Flames rank 30th on the PK and have given up power-play goals in each of their last six games. “There's parts of it where you feel like it's coming, but when there's a breakdown now, it's ending up in the net, and we do go through stretches like that. You just feel like the stretches for our team in that situation have been much too long this year,” said Huska. “You have to find a way to have a clean sheet with your penalty kill. No matter what power play you're playing against, you have to find a way to get the job done.” Saturday's two power-play goals against came on only two chances, leaving Calgary a woeful 9-for-16 on the kill over that span. “We gotta figure it out,” said Backlund. “If you want to make the playoffs, that's something that's gonna have to be a lot better for us.” Calgary remains one point back of Vancouver for the second wild-card berth in the Western Conference with a pack of teams right behind them. In 29 games with the Flames last season, Kuzmenko scored 14 goals. Nearly an identical clip to the 39-goals he notched as a rookie the previous season. Entering the final year of his contract, Kuzmenko was viewed this year as a key part of the Flames' offence. But he has struggled all season with only one goal in 30 games — that goal coming back on Oct. 15 in the club's fourth gam
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