Strong Third Period Has Calgary One Game From Advancing, Defeat Dallas 3-1

Calgary Flames 3 – Dallas Stars 1

Calgary Leads Series 3-2

Complete Stats

Scoring

1st: None

2nd: DAL 13:31- Robertson (Benn)

3rd: CGY 6:49- Backlund (Mangiapane/Coleman), CGY 10:38- Mangiapane (Backlund/Zadorov), CGY 19:03- Lewis (Gaudreau/Lindholm)

Raise your hand if you had this game ending this way? Now take that hand and slap yourself because you’re lying. The Dallas Stars stymied the Flames at every turn tonight, but the Calgary dug deep and produced one heck of a third period to defeat the Stars 3-1 in Game 5.

For 40+ minutes Dallas played their usual heavy, slow, plodding pace and held a 1-0 lead until Calgary was able to crack Jake Oettinger in the third period and then the game opened up. Calgary would take advantage of a bad Dallas line change when Andrew Mangiapane would slide the puck through the Dallas defence to an awaiting Mikael Backlund who would perfectly redirect the puck home, tying the game at 1-1. And then the arena and Flames came to life. Nikita Zadorov would collect a loose puck and find Mikael Backlund heading up ice. Backlund then find a streaking Andrew Mangiapane who would fire an absolute laser past Oettinger to put the Flames up for good, 2-1. Johnny Guadreau would fire a puck towards an empty Dallas net and miss, but some great hustle by Trevor Lewis would lead to him collecting that puck and firing it into the vacant Stars net to ice the game at 3-1.

The Flames now lead the series 3-2 and can close it out on Friday night in Dallas.

Highlights

Mikael Backlund gets the Flames on the board

Andrew Mangiapane gives the Flames the lead

Trevor Lewis adds an empty netter

Final Thoughts

-You have to give Darryl Sutter a lot of credit. He added Michael Stone back into the lineup again tonight and his mixing and jumbling of the lines was exactly what the Flames needed tonight. He broke up the top line, reunited the Backlund line and things just seemed to work.

-Speaking of that second line, they had themselves a game tonight. Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane each had a goal and an assist tonight and they were one of the major reasons Calgary was able to put this one away in the final frame.

-Calgary needs more out of Matthew Tkachuk. And by more, I mean ANYTHING. Tkachuk has been invisible in this series and the Flames need him to step up if they are going to get past Dallas and make a run.

Flame Of The Game

Jacob Markstrom (G): 20 saves on 21 shots, 1 goal allowed

What's Next?

5/13: Calgary Flames @ Dallas Stars, 7:30 PM MT

by Mark Parkinson