Calgary Flames comeback falls short as Dallas Stars take Game 2

A last-minute goal from Jamie Oleksiak helped the Dallas Stars even up their series with the Calgary Flames.

The Dallas Stars dominated much of Game 2 in their playoff series against the Calgary Flames and despite a late Calgary Flames comeback attempt, the Stars won 5-4. The Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars started game two on Thursday night for the first of two back to back game nights.

The Flames continued their intensity to start the game and the Stars came right up to their level. Calgary started the scoring in a déjà vu like scenario, with Dillon Dube coming in on the rush and beating Ben Bishop, who started instead of Anton Khudobin. Taylor Fedun slid into the Stars lineup tonight to replace Stephen Jones who was deemed unfit to play in that game.

If you were following along with Milan Lucic’s playoff point streak, unfortunately, the first Flames goal was not the one to extend it, and ultimately, that streak came to an end after the completion of this game.

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The Stars answered back just over two minutes later with a goal from Alexander Radulov. Their newfound momentum continued and resulted in the Stars taking their first lead of the series with a goal from Miro Heiskanen. The Stars definitely proved to be the better team in the first period, humbling the Flames a little bit after their game one victory.

The second period began in a way that continued the Flames woes. Head coach Geoff Ward ended up calling a timeout 4:50 into the second period following Miro Heiskanen’s second goal of the night.

At this point, it seemed his only other option would be to pull Cam Talbot and put David Rittich in, but he did not see that to be the right decision at that time. At that point in the period, the Flames had not registered a shot on goal and were being outshot by the Stars 19-7. Later in the second, Corey Perry got goal number four for the Stars on the power play to put the Stars up 4-2 going into the second intermission.

The Flames attempt a comeback in the third period and appear to start it when Andrew Mangiapane appears to score on a lucky play. However, after review, it is determined that Mangiapane scored on a kicking motion and it was overturned.

On the play, a high-sticking double minor was given to Tyler Seguin, as he got his stick in the face of T.J. Brodie that resulting in him losing a tooth. Matthew Tkachuk also left the game during that play and did not return. He went down the tunnel three different times this game with apparent injuries.

Tobias Reider got a second wind in the third period off a shorthanded breakaway he beats Bishop on. Sam Bennett followed up at 17:11 off a rebound feed from Elias Lindholm and as the clock ticks down, this game appears as if it might go to overtime.

Unfortunately for the Flames, that was not the case. Jamie Oleksiak scored with 40 seconds to go in regulation and the Flames scrambled in the dying seconds, but couldn’t get the much-needed goal. The Dallas Stars took game two by a score of 5-4.

The Flames have had things go their way more or less up until this point with the exception of the loss in game two against the Winnipeg Jets in the qualifying series. What needs to change before their next game is involvement from their top regular season players. The Dube, Lucic, Bennett line cannot hold a whole playoff run on their back.

At some point, the spotlighted players like Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, and Mark Giordano need to be at the caliber the team needs them to be at and that starts with production.

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They also need to shut down Jamie Benn. Benn absolutely bullied the team this game and had a hand in the plays that shook up Tkachuk. Tkachuk may be questionable as far as returning in time for Friday’s game at the same time, same place at 8:30 p.m. MT.

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