SAN JOSE, CALIF. — The Calgary Flames were the only National Hockey League team that did not play on Dec. 23, prior to their Christmas break.

And, to make things even more interesting, they resumed game action a day later than most teams — on Thursday — which gave the team plenty of time to stew about their last loss, a lacklustre 3-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens at home.

There were only two probable outcomes, of course. The Flames could have blamed the break for the rust for another belly-flop. Or, they were going to leave San Jose’s SAP Center, praising the break for the recovery time.

But what they didn’t anticipate was a stellar showing from Flames back-up netminder David Rittich which gave neither excuse validity, as the Flames lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Sharks.

The Flames dropped to 18-15-4 and 10-0-1 when leading after two periods.

And, in the end, the 25-year-old native of Jihlava, Czech Republic, lost his first NHL game in his fourth start despite stopping 29 of 31 Sharks shots in regulation and another one important save on Marc-Edouard Vlasic with the clock winding down in overtime. He stopped Brent Burns in the shootout, but was evaded by Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi.

Martin Jones made 32 saves in total, including a right-pad stop on T.J. Brodie in the extra frame and a doorstep save on Matthew Tkachuk. He also turned aside Sean Monahan and Mikael Backlund in the shootout.

After protecting a one-goal lead for 38 minutes and 15 seconds, a slight breakdown by the Flames in the third period led to the game-tying goal. Burns had been left alone at the point (never a good sign) and he let a shot rip, allowing Timo Meier to get a piece of it to send it past Rittich to knot the score 2-2 at the eight minute mark.

It was a tight third period, and Calgary nearly made it 3-1 early on when Matt Stajan and Troy Brouwer were on the doorstep of Jones. They managed to muscle a puck towards the goal-line but Vlasic batted it out for the Sharks goalie and created a scoring chance at the other end of the ice.

Rittich came up with a timely save, sticking out his right pad on Jannik Hansen.

It was exactly the kind of game Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan predicted at the morning skate.

“Their team wins battles,” Gulutzan had said, referring to a 3-2 loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Dec. 14. “They’re very good in one-on-one situations and that’s where our team is going to have to rise up today. We’re going to have to be above them and be ready for their start in this building. I look at their team and their individual battle level, that’s the part of our game that we have to elevate.”

And, from the first puck-drop, the Flames elevated.

Garnet Hathaway hit the scoresheet, thanks to Sam Bennett’s crashing and banging to pull Jones to his right. Hathaway slammed home the rebound on the former Calgary Hitmen netminder’s left side. It was a good start for the visitors — something preached by Gulutzan at their morning skate — who scored with just 4:22 elapsed in the opening frame.

The Sharks replied on the power-play to knot the score 1-1 with Stajan off for interference. Joe Pavelski went bar-down on Rittich after snapping up a magnificent no-look feed from Joe Thornton.

But with 4:15 remaining in the first period, the Flames regained the lead with a powerplay marker from Backlund. And unlike their last two powerplay goals — scratch that, their only two powerplay goals in the previous eight games — this one was a thing of beauty from their revamped first-unit of Backlund, Tkachuk, Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano.

With the loss, the Flames gained a point and are now 9-4-4 on the road and square off with the Anaheim Ducks on Friday (8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet 960 The Fan) in the second half of their sixth back-to-back series this season.

ICE CHIPS:

Jaromir Jagr skated in his 1,731st NHL game which equaled Ron Francis for third on the NHL’s all-time games-played list. The 45-year-old living legend had missed the previous two games with a groin injury, the same injury that has limited to only 19 games the season . . . D Travis Hamonic also returned from a groin injury . . . RW Michael Frolik left the game in the second period after he was struck in the face by a Burns shot. He did not return for the third . . . The teams will clash two more times, March 16 at Calgary and March 24 at San Jose.

kodland@postmedia.com

Twitter/Kristen_Odland