NHL: Another troubling injury to Jacob Pelletier

The Calgary Flames lost the services of Jacob Pelletier midway through the first period of their game against the New York Rangers on Monday.

The Rangers, whose next opponent is the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, won 2-0 to extend their winning streak to four, while the Flames' win slowed it to three.

Quebec was hit hard along the boards by Jacob Trouba. He had to receive assistance to get back to the bench, all after 54 seconds of ice time. We saw him holding his left shoulder, the same shoulder that had surgery on it after being injured last September, during the preparatory calendar.

He jumped onto the ice briefly during a commercial break to test his strength, but instead retreated to the locker room and did not return for the second period. The Flames confirmed he will not return to the game this evening due to an upper-body injury. We do not yet know how dangerous it is.

Pelletier, 22, had just returned to action on February 6, playing just his fourth game since surgery. He had an assist in his last game, Saturday, in a win over the New York Islanders.

Will Coyle scored the first goal of the game with his ninth goal of the season in the second half. Kaapo Kakko and Johny Brodzinski collected assists down the stretch.

Jimmy Vesey completed the score into an empty net. Igor Shesterkin picked up his first shutout of the campaign and 12th career shutout thanks to 30 saves.

Named the NHL's All-Star of the Week last week, Jacob Markstrom surrendered just one shot on 30 shots, but his teammates couldn't buy a goal to salvage his impressive performance.