Connor Zary scores overtime winner for Flames in 2-1 win over Bruins

By Canadian Press on December 29, 2025.

CALGARY — Connor Zary scored the overtime winner on the power play Monday to lead the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Blake Coleman also scored for Calgary (17-18-4). The Flames have won four straight at Scotiabank Saddledome and improved to 9-1-1 in their last 11.

Andrew Peeke scored for Boston (20-19-1), whose winless skid reached six games (0-4-2).

Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf made 24 stops to improve to 13-14-2. Jeremy Swayman, who had 18 saves, fell to 14-10-2.

Boston opened the scoring at 18:06 of the first period when space opened up for Peeke to drive to the net where his shot ended up sliding underneath Wolf.

It remained 1-0 until 15:32 of the second when Coleman took a pass from Mikael Backlund and wristed in his team-leading 12th goals.

The assist extended Backlund’s point streak to five games (four goals, four assists) and put the 36-year-old captain on pace to finish with 50 points for just the third time in his career.

Takeaways

Bruins: Outscored 24-10 in five straight losses, coach Marco Sturm broke up his top line, moving Alex Steeves onto the top line with Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie and putting David Pastrnak with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov. The Bruins also made a change on the defence with Jonathan Aspirot returning after missing seven games due to injury.

Flames: Coach Ryan Huska also made a change up front, swapping wingers Connor Zary and Matt Coronato. Zary moved up to play with Morgan Frost and Jonathan Huberdeau while Coronato joined Backlund and Coleman and played a role in the tying goal, carrying the puck in deep.

Key Moment

On Calgary’s overtime power play, Wolf was forced to make big short-handed stops on Pavel Zacha and then Nikita Zadorov. When the play turned up ice, Calgary’s power play unit was able to set up and Zary banged in a loose puck from in front.

Key Stat

Calgary, which has the NHL’s worst power play, was 0-for-4 in the game and in a 1-for-24 tailspin before Zary’s goal at 1:53 of OT. Zary scored with seven seconds remaining in Aspirot’s high-sticking penalty taken at the third-period buzzer.

Up Next

Bruins: Travel to Edmonton to take on the Oilers on Wednesday.

Flames: Host to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2025.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press