The Vancouver Canucks lost their sixth straight game on Thursday night, 3-1, to the visiting Calgary Flames.
Jacob Markstrom made 33 saves in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would suggest.
Markstrom returned to Vancouver for the first time since signing with the Flames.
“Before tonight, this is the only building I hadn’t been in the visitor room,” Markstrom said. “It’s weird to land and take the bus, staying at a hotel when it’s been home for so long. But it was nice for us to get a win, and it’s an important one.”
Brock Boeser scored the lone goal for the Canucks.
“It’s easy to pick apart a game when you only score one goal,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “As much as you hate losing, our guys are smart enough to know they played a pretty good hockey game. They know if we bring that game to the table, you’re going to win more than you lose
Markstrom is undefeated against his old team.
“This guy is so well prepared for every hockey game, I don’t think he cares where he’s playing, to be honest with you, whether it’s home, here, anywhere else,” Flames head coach Geoff Ward said. “He’s such a competitive guy, he takes so much pride in his personal performance and the way that he prepares. He wants to win at everything.”
Andrew Mangiapane and Mark Giordano had goals for Calgary.
“[Markstrom] kept us in there at times and made some big saves,” Calgary’s Sean Monahan said. “When your goalie’s doing that, it gives you some jump and gives you a real good chance to win games.” 
Johnny Gaudreau put the game away in the third period on a goal off a breakaway, for a 3-1 lead.
“After that, I thought we really squeezed them,” Giordano said. “We didn’t give them much through the neutral zone, we were making good plays. They’re not all going to be nice and pretty.”
Thatcher Demko made 23 saves in the loss.
“‘Marky’ is always good. He’s a great goalkeeper, we saw it when he was here,” Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson said. “We just got to figure out a way to beat him. I think we had our looks.”
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