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

Vladar made 22 saves as the Calgary Flames ended a four-game losing streak with a 3-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday.

“It’s a great day for me, especially against Marky,” Vladar said. “Good growing game for me, that’s for sure.”

After the game, Vladar, 27, credited Flames goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera for helping him prepare for the showdown against Markstrom, 34, with whom he shared the court for three recent seasons.

“He’s such a great person and we’re still really good friends and obviously I’m rooting for him. So for me, before the game tonight, I wasn’t nervous, but I didn’t feel at home. “I’m comfortable, to be honest, playing against Marky,” Vladar said. “So Barbs prepared me. He was like, let’s go.

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

“I was just focused on the next stop and the next stop. It doesn’t matter if it’s Jack Hughes or anyone else,” said Vladar, who improved to 3-2-1 this season.

After starting the season with a 5-0-1 record, the Flames have struggled as of late, including being outscored 10-3 in their last two games.

“I thought 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 everywhere tonight. I thought we checked well, didn’t give up much, and when we did, Vladdy was great.

Coleman, a former Devil, knows what it’s like to face players you shared a locker room with.

“I guess it’s a game that (Vladar) probably had circled on his calendar,” Coleman said. “It’s fun to be able to compete with old friends and teammates like that. Obviously, I still have a few on this team. Sometimes it’s just a little nicer to take that off.

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

“(Vladar) played really solid tonight. He’s played really solid for us all year, and it’s good for him to come out tonight and play so well,” the Flames captain said. “He was great from the start. I’m really happy for him.

As the game remained scoreless until the end of the third period, Vladar’s belief never wavered.

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

When Markstrom was traded to New Jersey last summer, it opened up the starting job in Calgary and through 11 games this season, coach Ryan Huska alternated between Vladar and rookie Dustin Wolf.

But that “could” change, Huska admitted, with the next opponent on Sunday being the Edmonton Oilers, who Vladar beat earlier in the season.

“In his approach to the game, there is not much difference. He’s the same guy every day, whether he’s a backup, if you want to call it that, or now he’s getting more starts,” Huska said.

“What I like is the tandem we have. I feel like there’s some competition between the two of them, Dan Vladar is having a great match, and now Dustin’s wheels are probably spinning a bit, where I have to respond in my next start. So I think it’s a really good thing for our team to have two guys that want to score, and they’re playing really well for us.

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