CALGARY, Alberta — Logan Thompson’s return came up a bit short. Not when you consider his performance. But short anyway by about six minutes.
In his first game since sustaining a lower-body injury on Feb. 9, Thompson made 37 saves as the surging Golden Knights beat the Calgary Flames 3-2 on Thursday night.
But with a little more than six minutes remaining in the third period, the goaltender left with an undisclosed injury. Jonathan Quick mopped up, stopping five shots as the Flames, fighting for a playoff spot, turned up the heat.
“Right now, obviously concerned about Logan,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, Logan missing that much time, we’ll have to look closely at that one.”
It’s unknown if the latest setback is related to the lower-body injury from Feb. 9. “I don’t know what happened, to be honest. He just got up and left,” Cassidy said. “He knows his body. I have no idea. At the end of the day, let’s hope it’s not related to the previous injury and it’s something that will be short term.”
Cassidy said Friday that Thompson, along with Reilly Smith and defenseman Alec Martinez, are unavailable for the team’s game Saturday at Edmonton. Thompson and Smith are injured — details were not provided, as is generally the case — and Martinez is away for personal reasons, according to Cassidy.
Thompson left the game Thursday night with the Knights ahead 3-2.
“It doesn’t happen really often, but when he got out there (Quick) made a couple really good saves to keep us in the game,” Knights forward Ivan Barbashev said.
The Flames’ best chance against Quick came off the stick of MacKenzie Weegar with a minute to go, but he couldn’t cash in from 30 feet out.
“I saw the net and I missed my shot,” the Flames defenseman said. “If there was one chance I can get back all year, it would be that one.”
Nicolas Roy scored for the Knights (45-21-6) in his return from an 18-game absence. Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Amadio also scored.
Milan Lucic and Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary (32-26-15). Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 shots in his 11th start in the last 12 games.
In avenging their 7-2 home loss to the Flames last week, the Golden Knights earned their seventh win in eight games and are on a a 16-3-2 roll.
The Knights opened a four-point cushion on the Los Angeles Kings atop the Pacific Division.
For Calgary, the loss was a tough blow for its flickering playoff hopes. The Flames dropped six points back of Winnipeg for the second wild-card in the Western Conference. It was Calgary’s 27th one-goal loss this year, which leads the NHL.
“We’re in every game, and we have a chance to win every game we’re playing, so it obviously makes it more frustrating that we lose and it feels like we’re always losing by that one goal,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said.
“I don’t know how many games I’ve played back in my head thinking that ‘Ah, I should have scored that’ or ‘How did we not score that’ and we would have been in a different situation, but it’s the reality.”
Up 2-1 entering the third period, the Knights created some breathing room at 5:19 when pressure by Roy created a defensive zone turnover by Rasmus Andersson. Roy then went to the net, received a pass from Phil Kessel and fired a shot over Markstrom.
The Flames pulled within one at 12:33 when Kadri ended his 16-game goal drought with a power-play marker, but that’s as close as they would get. Calgary fell to 0-18-3 when trailing after two periods.
