Cooley rebounds to lead Flames to gritty 3-2 win over Hurricanes

Late in the second period with the visitors up 1-0, Calgary got hemmed in its own end for an extended stretch. As Carolina poured on the pressure looking to extend its lead, it was survival mode for the Flames.

“When that’s happening, I just try to slow my breathing down, just relax, just calm down. It’s going to be OK, and just really try to let my eyes do all the work instead of my body and not go chasing it, not go running around,” said Cooley. “Try to conserve as much energy and just play a lot smarter than a lot harder.”

Facing a similar scenario in his last start, that’s now how it played out.

“It happened against Colorado, and I’m playing super hard. I’m not playing smart, and then I give up a goal with no screen from the blue line, and it’s like that’s exactly why you have to just calm your breathing down, calm your mind down.”

When Mikael Backlund finally relieved the relentless pressure by carrying the puck out of the defensive zone and dumping it down the ice, the tying goal came just seconds later when Matt Coronato set up Matvei Gridin for his first goal of the year.

The Flames second-year forward had just stepped onto the ice five seconds earlier for beleaguered rookie Aydar Suniev, who had been out for 2:22. Yan Kuznetsov (3:13) and Zach Whitecloud (2:10) were the D pairing who got trapped.

“That was the turning point,” Huska said. “We gave up some zone time, we gave up some chances, but they held the fort and they found a way. And that to me shifted momentum in our favour a little bit.”

Sixty-nine seconds after tying it, Morgan Frost scored on the power play at 19:39 and suddenly Calgary was in the lead.

Carolina tied it with four seconds left in the period on Jalen Chatfield’s screened shot, but the Flames did not let that rattle them.

Cooley was perfect in the third as the home side outshot the Hurricanes 14-11, eventually getting the game-winner from Yegor Sharangovich at 15:32 when he was set up neatly by Frost and one-timed a shot into the top corner on Brandon Bussi.

“He was great,” said Flames defenceman Zayne Parekh, who made a dazzling pass on the Frost goal. “That’s the Cools we all know, and we all know he’s capable of doing that every night.”

Huska knows that his rebuilding team, which entered the night last in the overall standings, will need more of those kinds of performances from Cooley and Dustin Wolf, who had started the last three games.

“He (Cooley) was awesome,” said Huska. “We need a goaltender to do that. You don’t want to have him make saves like that every night, but you need them to be your best players, especially when you’re in a stretch like we’ve been in here over the last little while. I thought he was excellent tonight.”

Cooley had a message post-game for everyone concerned about how he and his partner have been playing.

“Everyone’s panicking about the goalies. Everyone, just chill out. We’re gonna be fine. Dustin’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna be fine.

“Sometimes you just have a bad start and things aren’t going your way. But I have so much faith in our goalie department, in Barbs, in our process and our work ethic and our talent level.”

The Flames are back in action Thursday when they host the Minnesota Wild.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2026.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Cooley rebounds to lead Flames to gritty 3-2 win over Hurricanes

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