CALGARY — The post-game smile on Connor Zary’s face turned into a chuckle pretty quickly.

 “We’ve all been a part of a disallowed goal,” said the Calgary Flames forward, following a shockingly memorable evening between two bottom-feeders.

“But to have three straight… it was pretty nuts.”

Three goals wiped out by coach challenges. 

Three celebrations cut short. 

Three times the Flames looked up at the scoreboard to see pretty passing plays all negated by St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery and his video coach.

Once is annoying. Twice is absurd. Three times? As Zary put it, “you just have to laugh.”

And laugh they did — on the bench, in the crease, and afterward in a dressing room that somehow stayed loose through one of the strangest nights in recent Flames lore.

It was the first time since March 2023 that any NHL team successfully erased three goals in a single game, matching a feat only ever achieved by Jay Woodcroft’s Oilers that night.  

This time, it was Montgomery using the rulebook to carve up the Flames’ best moments by inches, frames, and shoulder-height measurements.

“I was just kind of laughing in my crease,” said goalie Devin Cooley, whose 25 saves played a big role in helping the Flames overcome the trio of gut-punches in a 2-1 shootout win. 

“I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.”

The Flames didn’t just lose three goals — they lost three beauties.

And yet, the most remarkable part of the night wasn’t the officiating oddity. It was how little it rattled an undermanned Calgary team playing out the string with pride, unity, and a whole lot of pushback in a feisty, entertaining affair.

“We do have good character, we have good people,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said afterward. 

“We stayed with it even though the three were taken back, and we stood up for one another as well too, which was maybe the most important thing.”

The first erasure came at 12:39 of the opening period, when Kevin Bahl’s valiant attempt to hold a clearing pass in the offensive zone was followed by a dandy fake shot and slick feed to Martin Pospisil that looked to put the hosts up 2–0.

Alas, replay showed the puck drifting inches outside the zone. 

Then came Zary’s own high‑stick sequence with 2:38 left in the first. His hands were magic on the play, batting the puck out of the air twice, but one touch was just above shoulder height before Yegor Sharangovich buried it.

“We were kind of joking, ‘I think it was under (6-foot-5 defenceman Colton) Parayko’s shoulder, right?’” laughed Zary.

“That was pretty high.”

Midway through the second, Joel Farabee jumped the zone a hair early before finishing a gorgeous Mikael Backlund pass through two defenders. Offside again, by an inch. Another beauty wiped away.

“Once the third one goes, everyone just looked at each other, like, ‘are we trying to break a record here or something?’” Zary chuckled.

The Flames even joked they’d show the clips the next day and “pretend that they counted.”

“We have to review the rules I guess,” joked Huska.

It was the kind of game Flames fans have been craving down the stretch: spirited, entertaining, full of offence (even if three didn’t count) and, as it turned out, historic.

The win wasn’t ideal in their quest to land first pick in the draft lottery, but it was a just reward for a team that deserved it. Fans got their money’s worth too.

There were endless scrums in a game that intensified after Blake Coleman took a knee from Tyler Tucker. Everyone was game to step up. 

And the kids — Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz and Matvei Gridin — got valuable overtime reps.

Zary, meanwhile, had one of his best nights of the season. His first-period goal, the one that did survive review, snapped a 10-game drought.

Cooley was excellent again, highlighted by a slick poke-check in overtime that kept the Flames alive long enough for Victor Olofsson and Gridin to generate Grade‑A chances.

Farabee’s contributions also included a nifty shootout snipe, which was followed by Gridin punctuating the evening in dramatic fashion with a gorgeous roof‑job of his own over Joel Hofer’s glove. 

The confidence of the young first rounder continues to grow, as the coach confirmed afterwards the 20-year-old revelation gave the coach the hairy-eyeball on the bench in the shootout, imploring him to give him a shot.

Montgomery, mercifully, couldn’t challenge those.