Calgary Flames open playoff series against Dallas Stars with a win

The Calgary Flames narrowly defeat the Dallas Stars by a score of 3-2 thanks to a two-goal effort by Dillon Dube in game one of their playoff series.

The Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars began their Stanley Cup Playoffs series on Tuesday afternoon and complete their whole game before Columbus and Tampa Bay are able to complete their multiple overtime frames.

Both teams spared no time dialing up the intensity and bringing out the big hits. The first period started at a very quick pace going back and forth for many of the opening minutes. Matthew Tkachuk drew a penalty just about halfway through the period that results in a power-play goal from Dillon Dube, proving his line hasn’t lost any momentum since their qualifying series against the Winnipeg Jets.

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In an attempt to shift the momentum, Corey Perry picked a fight with Matthew Tkachuk just a couple of minutes after the Flames’ opening goal. Time would tell if Tkachuk’s actions in the first period will make him public enemy number one in Dallas as well.

Not only did the Flames find the back of the net once again this period, but no other than Dillon Dube delivered goal number two. Dube danced around the Stars defense, scoring his second goal of the night and making this game the first multi-goal game of his NHL career.

The Flames finished the first period 1/1 on the power play, ahead by a score of 2-0 and advantageous 12-7 in shots. Milan Lucic picked up an assist on Dube’s first goal and extended his recent point streak to five games.

Both teams came out strong to start the second period and as the period continues, the Stars focused on keeping up with the pace of the Flames. They quickly got both their goals back on a redirect from Denis Gurianov and a bounce that worked in the Stars favor off of Jamie Benn’s shot off the draw. These goals came within nine seconds of each other in a string of unlucky events for Cam Talbot.

The Flames lost their comfortability and once again reset for an evenly scored game. However, they did not let the Stars pull ahead. Rasmus Andersson skated quickly into the zone and placed his shot on the top blocker side of Anton Khudobin to pull the Flames ahead by one.

This holds for the rest of the frame and Calgary finishes the period ahead 3-2 and still ahead in shots 19-18 despite being outshot 11-7 that period.

The Stars looked to once again tie the game up in the final 20 minutes and almost did 3:50 into the third period on a quality scoring chance that took not only the effort of Cam Talbot to stop, but also a blocking effort in deep by Mark Giordano.

Back and forth hockey continued with few stoppages in plays. Khudobin tried to make his way back to the bench for an extra attacker with just over a minute and a half left in regulation but had to wait until they control it in the Flames zone with about a minute to go in the third period.

Mark Giordano tried to clear the puck seconds off Khudobin skates off and accidentally aimed it out of play to take a bad late penalty that ends up being the only penalty of the period.

The Stars played a 6-on-4 for their power play with Khudobin staying on the bench. Joe Pavelski got a solid scoring chance with 9.5 seconds to go but Cam Talbot held his ground. The Flames defended their lead right down to the final second and took game one by a final score of 3-2.

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Shots end even at 26 a side and Flames held a slight edge in hits by 34-29. Game 2 takes place Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. MT where the Stars either look to even up the series or the Flames look to extend their series lead.

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