Post-Game: Stars out-shine Flames in overtime

After two days off, the Calgary Flames returned to game action on Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome. But the Flames were a bit flat early on and despite another third period comeback, they lost 4-3 in overtime to the Dallas Stars.

It was a fairly sluggish start for the Flames, as they seemed a bit slow to react to Dallas’ speed. That caught them early on, as Radek Faksa found Jason Spezza at the high slot just 41 seconds in for a quick wrister that beat David Rittich high to make it 1-0 Stars.

The Flames spent much of the rest of the period chasing, including three consecutive power plays which looked successively less effective. But late in the first the Flames even things up, as the fourth line managed to retrieve an Oliver Kylington dump-in and get to work on cycling. Eventually Mark Jankowski found Garnet Hathaway with a nice pass from below the goal line, and Hathaway’s shot beat Anton Khudobin to make it 1-1.

Shots were 12-10 Flames, but scoring chances were 9-4 Stars.

The second period was pretty even, with the Flames adjusting to Dallas’ positioning in the defensive zone by playing a lot of dump and chase to get behind their defensemen. They managed to get some good looks, but failed to bury their chances.

Late in the period Dallas retook the lead with Travis Hamonic in the penalty box. Off a very aggressive power play with some rapid puck movement, a Tyler Seguin saucer pass found Jamie Benn at the side of the crease for a redirect to make it 2-1. It was a very smooth pass and Benn just managed to get position to TJ Brodie to get a stick on the pass.

Shots were 11-7 Stars and chances 9-3 Flames.

The Flames made some adjustments to start the third period and started to get some looks. After Matthew Tkachuk drew a penalty, the Flames finally drew even. 13 seconds into the man advantage, the Flames elected to drive the net rather than pass around the perimeter. Johnny Gaudreau beat Khudobin with a wrist shot to make it a 2-2 game.

The next shift saw more pressure from the Flames, including some very nice puck movement from Mikael Backlund’s line. Finally, Mark Giordano beat Khudobin with a wrist shot to make it 3-2 Flames.

But a few minutes later, Dallas defender Gavin Bayreuther tied the game at 3-3 with a shot through traffic that eluded Rittich. Neither team managed to settle this in regulation, so it was off to extra time. Shots were 14-6 Flames and chances 13-4 Flames in the final period of regulation.

Seguin scored 24 seconds into overtime to win this for Dallas. (After a review, the goal stood.)

Let’s be honest, they weren’t great for the first half (or so) of this game. Passes couldn’t connect. They couldn’t bury chances. They were leaky defensively. They managed to claw their way back in the third, as they often do, but they were fortunate to capture a point.

The entire team was a bit sleepy to begin the game, but two players stood out in positive ways consistently: Rittich and Elias Lindholm. Rittich made some nice saves when the Flames got a bit leaky defensively, while Lindholm made a lot of nice plays on the power play.

Dallas’ tying goal was a shot with eyes, but the Flames gave Dallas a lot of time and space to operate in the offensive zone. The Flames had to match the Stars’ desperation with some poise and defensive structure, and they just couldn’t lock things down.

Bill Peters’ third period line blender, with the team chasing the game:

As you would imagine, Austin Czarnik, Dillon Dube and Garnet Hathaway saw reduced ice time in the third. Dube and Hathaway were given one shift with Jankowski after an early Flames power play. Czarnik didn’t have a shift in the third period.

The Flames (14-9-2) practice tomorrow, then prepare to host the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.