CALGARY – Dan Vladar faced his former goaltending partner Jacob Markstrom for the first time, and won in style with a shutout.

Vladar made 22 stops as the Calgary Flames snapped a four-game losing streak with a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday.

“This is a good day for me, especially against Marky,” Vladar said. “A good growing game for me, for sure.”

After the game, Vladar, 27, thanked Flames goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera for helping him prepare for the matchup against Markstrom, 34, with whom he shared the area for the past three seasons.

“He’s a great person and we’re still very good friends and obviously I encourage him. So for me, before the game tonight, I wasn’t nervous, but to be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable playing against Marky,” Vladar said. “So Barbs set me up. He said: let’s go, let’s go.”

One of Vladar’s biggest saves came early in the second half, when he kept the game scoreless by thwarting a Jack Hughes breakaway. Hughes got a second breakaway later in the period, but slid the puck wide.

“I was just focused on the next save and the next save. It didn’t really matter if it was Jack Hughes or someone else,” said Vladar, who improved to 3-2-1 on the season.

After starting the season 5-0-1, the Flames had struggled lately, including being outscored 10-3 in their last two games.

“I felt like we deserved the win,” said Blake Coleman, who scored twice, including the game-winner at 14:26 of the third. “Our effort was much better tonight. I thought we controlled well, we didn’t give up too much and when we did, Vladdy was great.”

Coleman, a former Devil, knows what it’s like to go up against players you used to share a locker room with.

“I imagine it’s a game that (Vladar) probably had marked on his calendar,” Coleman said. “It’s fun competing against old friends and teammates like that. Obviously, I still have some on that team too. “Sometimes it just makes it a little sweeter to put this out.”

Mikael Backlund, honored before the game for playing in his 1,000th game, assisted on Coleman’s game-winning goal.

“(Vladar) played very solid tonight. “He’s been playing very solid for us all year and it’s good that he comes in tonight and plays so well,” the Flames captain said. “It was great, from the beginning. “I’m very happy for him.”

While the game remained scoreless until the closing stages of the third, Vladar’s faith never wavered.

“You just have to believe that our guys are going to score and I never had any doubts throughout the game. I knew we were going to bury at least one,” Vladar said.

When Markstrom was traded to New Jersey last summer, he opened the starting job in Calgary and for 11 games this season, coach Ryan Huska has rotated between Vladar and rookie Dustin Wolf.

But that “may” change, Huska admitted, and Sunday’s next opponent will be the Edmonton Oilers, whom Vladar defeated earlier in the season.

“In their way of approaching the game there is not much difference. “He’s the same guy every day, whether it’s off the bench, if you want to call it that, or he’s getting more starts now,” Huska said.

“What I do like is the tandem we have. I feel like there’s some competition between those two, where Dan Vladar has a great game, and now Dustin’s wheels are probably spinning a little bit, where I have to respond in my next outing. So I think it’s very good for our team to have two guys who want to score and who are playing very well for us.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.