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In a season where the Toronto Maple Leafs have just three wins after 18 games, they’ve had enough experience losing to set the template for how it’s done.

Give up the lead in the first period, often by a couple goals. Mount a comeback that involves a lot of shots and a few chances on the power play.

And, ultimately, despite all of the excitement, fall short.

The Leafs played that formula out to a T on Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre, celebrating an ‘80s Night promotion a little too literally by stinking up the joint in the first period just like the old days in the Cashbox on Carlton.

On the giving end of the 5-2 loss were the red-hot Calgary Flames, 8-1-2 in their past 11 games and the NHL’s best team away from home.

“We can’t seem to find a way to keep the puck out of the net,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “More importantly, we are struggling to score.”

When you’re 3-10-5, there are often multiple holes in the dam.

As has been the case this season for the Leafs, they didn’t waste much time getting started, allowing two goals 1:37 into the game and watching as rookie Jonas Gustavsson was chased from the Toronto goal less than 10 minutes in.

Wilson said he doesn’t have an answer for why exactly his team has been so brutal in the early going, out scored 23-9 in first periods this season, but he certainly needs an answer.

The bright spots for the Flames, meanwhile, came in goal and up front, as Miikka Kiprusoff turned away 38 shots - including 19 in the second period - and captain Jarome Iginla scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season.

“He’s been outstanding for us in this run we’ve been on,” Iginla said of his goalie, who suddenly looks very much like the answer for Finland at the Olympics in February. “We relied on him a little bit too much tonight.”

In the end, that didn’t matter. Iginla and Eric Nystrom opened the game’s scoring on back-to-back shifts to make it 2-0 early, and after giving up a Leafs power play goal, got another one back on a nice individual effort by Dustin Boyd.

At 3-1, that was it for Gustavsson, who had the worst effort of his young career and was pegged with the loss after making only two saves on five shots.

“They’re going to score goals on you,” he said after the game. “Sometimes they’re going to score more than other times and this was a night when I had a bad start and things didn’t go my way.”

Toronto’s power play - one of the few bright spots in a dull season - was again sharp, with defenceman Francois Beauchemin and centre Matt Stajan both potting goals. But as was the case a night earlier in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, the rally fell well short.

The high point came in the second period, when the Leafs out shot Calgary 20-4 and had them on their heels. After Stajan’s goal, Flames head coach Brent Sutter called a timeout, but the onslaught kept coming.

"They really bounced back," Kiprusoff said. "The second period, we weren’t ready for that."

For all the momentum the Leafs gained, the Flames began to pull away again in the third, however, ending any notion of a Toronto comeback. Iginla, streaking down the right side of the ice, netted a nearly identical goal to his first of the game 2:30 into the final frame to make the score 4-2, delighting the surprisingly large contingent of Calgary fans in the crowd.

Flames defenceman Jay Bouwmeester then closed out the scoring with 6:30 to go in the game on the power play.

Despite the lopsided win, Sutter wasn’t crowing about his team afterwards.

"The positives here tonight are that we got two points, our goaltender played very well, the captain scored two goals and we got a goal on our power play," Sutter said. "Other than that, it wasn’t a great game on our behalf. We were fortunate to get a win."

Notes: From 1979-80 to 1988-89, the Leafs posted a record of 263-443-94 through one of the darker periods of the franchise’s history under former owner Harold Ballard … Defenceman Carl Gunnarsson made his NHL debut for the Leafs, playing a regular shift (21:18 minutes) – including some time on the power play – in place of Garnet Exelby, who was scratched … Also sitting this one out was former Flame Wayne Primeau, whose wife gave birth earlier in the day. He was replaced by Jamal Mayers … Former Leafs healthy scratch Staffan Kronwall was instead a healthy scratch for the Flames in his new home. … the game featured three fights, including a weird one between Beauchemin and Olli Jokinen that featured few punches thrown.