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After a humbling end to the win streak on Wednesday night against Boston, the Flames came back with a strong performance against the Dallas Stars.
Calgary rode another stellar night from the 3M line who all finished +3 in the game. They also had another solid night from the Giordano/Hamilton defensive pairing who also both finished +3 in the game.
Long story short, the same five guys who have been amazing all year long were amazing again.
The game started off rather slowly with neither team generating a whole lot of shots in the opening period.
Late in the period Giordano would keep the puck in at the blue line, bank it off the boards to Mikael Backlund who would find Michael Frolik in the slot. Frolik would wrist a perfect shot home for his 16th goal of the season to make it 1-0 Flames.
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The big story early in the second period was the apparent demotion of Sam Bennett to the fourth line centre position while Matt Stajan moved up to centre Kris Versteeg and Troy Brouwer.
After a strong couple of shifts in the offensive zone the Flames would extend their lead to 2-0 when Matthew Tkachuk deflected a pass from Giordano past Lethonen. It was the rookies 13th goal of the season.
A few minutes Calgary would get a 3-0 lead on a weird play. The Flames would high-stick the puck in the neutral zone but neither Calgary or Dallas would touch the puck right away. But Tkachuk would show his advanced hockey IQ by waiting for a Star to touch it before immediately stealing the puck from him.
Tkachuk would leave the puck for Giordano who would take a long shot on net that would hit off a Star defender and beat an unsuspecting Lethonen.
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Brian Elliott had another solid night in the Flames net as he won his 10th straight game. He made 24 saves and a number of really strong ones.
He would only be beaten late in the 3rd period after a T.J. Brodie mistake left the puck for Brett Ritchie who would quickly beat a surprised Elliott through the five-hole to make it 3-1.
With the victory the Flames get their 40th win of the season (40-27-4) and get back to winning. They’ve now won 11 of 12 and have gone 16-3-1 in their last 20 games.
At the time of publishing the Anaheim Ducks had just started overtime against Buffalo meaning the Flames will be in 3rd in the Pacific for the time being.
Calgary hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday with the chance to really lock down a playoff position with a victory. Puck drop is at 7:30 MT from the Dome.