VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A night that started out with a strange goal ended with center Brandon Sutter scoring in a shootout to give the Vancouver Canucks a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

The Flames took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Canucks right winger Loui Eriksson scored into his own goal. Calgary right winger Troy Brouwer was credited with the goal.

Left winger Daniel Sedin tied the score for the Canucks late in the third period after center Henrik Sedin worked some magic with the puck.

Sutter scored in the fourth round of the shootout, beating Calgary goaltender Chad Johnson with a shot through the five hole.

"Just coming in on him I don't think the ice was very good," Sutter said. "I thought about deking, but just looked up and found a spot.

Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn't."

The win came in Vancouver's first game of the NHL season. The Flames dropped to 0-2-1.

Eriksson managed a little redemption on Daniel Sedin's tying goal with 3:51 left in the third period.

Henrik Sedin started the play with a pretty pass between his legs to Eriksson at the side of the net. He fed the puck to Daniel Sedin, who scored into a wide-open net.

The play came at the end of a two-minute shift where the Canucks controlled the puck in the Calgary zone and the Flames looked exhausted.

"That one, they were tired," Daniel Sedin said. "They were just standing still.

"It was nice to see it go in. This was a huge win for us to get the first one out of the way."

Calgary opened the scoring at 9:14 of the first period on a goal no one expected.

Vancouver goaltender Ryan Miller left his net for an extra attacker when the referee raised his arm for a delayed holding penalty being called on Brouwer.

Eriksson, the former Dallas Stars player who signed a six-year, $36 million deal during the summer, was handling the puck near center ice when he attempted a pass back into the Canucks' zone. The puck slid past several players and rolled into the Vancouver net before defenseman Erik Gudbranson could stop it.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Brouwer, a veteran of over 600 NHL games. "It was bizarre.

"I don't think I've ever scored a goal where I didn't touch the puck before."

Eriksson was also stunned by the play.

"As soon as I (moved the puck), I saw it was an empty net and I was like 'what is going on here' and it slowly just glided in there," he said.

"I've never seen that before and it was lucky we came back and won the game."

The goal was officially an empty netter. Miller was credited with stopping all 25 shots he faced, but the game won't go into the record books as a shutout.

"It's a weird way to catalog it," Miller said. "Don't let one in and don't get the shutout.

"But to get a win on opening night and help us get started in the right direction, I would have taken anything."

Brouwer, a free-agent signing during the summer, said some breakdowns late in the game cost the Flames.

"I'm not going to say we sat back in the third, but I think we weren't doing exactly what we needed to do," he said.

Johnson, the former Buffalo Sabres player who came to Calgary as a free agent, stopped 30 shots in his first start as a Flame.

He said the team is still adjusting to a new coach in Glen Gulutzan and several new players.

"It's going to take a little bit for us to be comfortable with the system," he said. "It's a process.

"It's only going to get better as the season goes on and guys get more comfortable with the systems and relying on each other. I thought we were better overall, (but) we still have some improving to do."

NOTES: C Bo Horvat, who led the Canucks with 30 points in the final 43 games of last season, started on a checking line with LW Alex Burrows and RW Derek Dorsett. ... C Markus Granlund, obtained in a trade from Calgary last year, skated on a second line with LW Sven Baertschi and RW Jake Virtanen. ... Vancouver's healthy scratches were RW Jack Skille, D Alex Biega and D Nikita Tryamkin. ... The Canucks play the Carolina Hurricanes Sunday, making it the first time in franchise history that the team has opened the season with back-to-back home games. ... G Brian Elliott, acquired from St. Louis, allowed 10 goals on 55 shots in back-to-back losses to Edmonton. ... Calgary D Ladislav Smid missed the game with a neck injury. ... Calgary's healthy scratches were D Dennis Wideman, D Nicklas Grossmann and C Freddie Hamilton. ... Calgary was playing its third game in four nights. ... The Flames return home to face Buffalo on Tuesday.