DUB-LE TROUBLE

NBA star James Harden has become synonomous with 'Fear The Beard'.
If you do a quick Google search, you'll find hats, graphics and t-shirts adorned with his image and that saying.
Dillon Dube - who is, of course, sporting an incredible Grizzly Adams-esque beard he started growing while quarantined during COVID-19 - may want to take a page from the Houston Rockets guard and look into some merchandising of his own.
The young Flames star scored two first-period goals - and nearly another - as the Flames downed the Stars 3-2 to draw first blood in their best-of-seven, opening-round playoff series.

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It didn't come without a good scare, though, courtesy of two Stars goals in nine seconds at the midway point of the second period.
Ah well, nothing like a little adversity.
As for Dube, social media was lit up with 'Fear The Beard' mentions during the game thanks to his dominating performance.
The Flames replicated the kind of start that served them well against Winnipeg, setting a quick pace and trying to establish their aggressive forecheck.
Alexander Radulov was whistled for interference on Matthew Tkachuk at 9:34, the sixth penalty drawn so far this post-season by Calgary's truculent left-winger.
The first powerplay unit generated some quality chances, including a great pass from Elias Lindholm to Tkachuk, who wired a quick shot that Dallas starter Anton Khudobin stopped.
The second PP unit, however, struck for paydirt.
On an end-to-end rush, Mikael Backlund gained the zone and passed to his left to Milan Lucic, who one-touched a beautiful cross-ice pass to Dube, who one-timed it from his knee short-side before a lunging Khudobin - with his glove arm outstretched - could make it across the net.
How quick was the tic-tac-toe pass from Lucic?
Glad you asked. The good folks on the TV broadcast timed it for us: a scant .08 seconds.
Lucic was riding a four-game-point streak coming into this series with a point in each of the tilts against the Jets.
Tweet from @NHLFlames: Fear the beard. pic.twitter.com/KX1PaB6VLD
Two former London Knights - the veteran Corey Perry and younger Tkachuk - dropped the mitts off a faceoff in Calgary's zone, exchanging some blows with Tkachuk ending up on top of the former Ducks sniper in the corner.
With four minutes to go, Dube had a partial breakaway but had a tough time settling down a bouncing puck, and wasn't able to get it up and over the blocker of Khudobin.
If at first you don't succeed ...
Dube notched his second of the frame with an absolute power move to the net, driving wide around Andrej Sekera, warding him off with an arm as he protected the puck and drove across the crease to tuck the puck home with 1:58 to play.
Tweet from @NHLFlames: What a move, Dubs. pic.twitter.com/hicgptVKOT
Sandwiched in between those tallies, Dube had a couple of minutes of rest when he was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking Jason Dickinson.
But just like the powerplay, the PK - which held the Jets to just two goals on 18 chances - continued its strong play by blanking them.
The Stars came out with a hard push in the second period.
The two teams traded great chances - Calgary's best early when Backlund made a great feed to Tobias Rieder, whose backhand attempt rolled wide.
Then came the two quick Dallas strikes.
Miro Heiskanen whipped a point shot from the right point near the boards that deflected in at 10:52.
Captain Jamie Benn snapped the puck from the opposite point after the ensuing faceoff, the puck bouncing before the net and hopping up and over Talbot's right pad.
But Rasmus Andersson put his club back in the lead with his second of the post-season with 3:59 left in the middle stanza.
He took a pass from d-partner Noah Hanifin inside his blueline and turned up ice, beating former Flame Blake Comeau and skating into the Dallas zone and taking a mid-range shot that went off the stick of Sekera just as he released it, changing direction and going high far-side under the bar.

The third period continued the back-and-forth trend and the Stars tried to pull at Khudobin at 2:28, but the Flames kept moving the puck back out.
Mark Giordano was tagged for a delay of game penalty with 49.3 seconds left when he cleared a puck up and over the glass.
That lead to a 6-on-4 finish for Dallas as they pressed for the tying tally, but weren't able to beat Talbot.

THEY SAID IT:

Andersson on his marker:
"My goal, we talked about how the D men have to start skating a little bit. I came in on 2-on-2, saw an angle and went for the shot and it went in. For the physical part, we showed in the Winnipeg series that we have a physical team and that when our forecheck is working, we're a really good team."
Dube on his line:
"I think it was good. Our line, as a group, had a really good start. We knew it had to be like (against) Winnipeg, get on them and push the pace. We were fortunate to get those two at the start and just kept it rolling all night. Our line has to keep playing that simple game and that will lead to some success."

Noah Hanifin on setting the tone:
"I thought we did a good job establishing our physicality, which is something we did last series against Winnipeg. It's a strong asset for our team and it's important we get to that early in every game."
Coach Geoff Ward on being up 1-0:
"For us to get the lead is nice, but it's a best-of-seven series and there's an awful lot of hockey left. The biggest thing is that we gained some confidence tonight. I think we learned some things as a team that I think we can apply for the rest of the series. It was a good first game but we have to park it and get ready for Games 2, 3 and 4, because the're going to come fast now. ... We'll go back and work on recovery, control the things that we can - and that's our rest and recovery."

ONE-TIMERS:

The Flames went 2-1 during the regular season against the Stars: They won 3-2 in a shootout on Oct. 10 and 5-1 on Dec. 22, while they fell 3-1 on Nov. 13 ... Although these two franchises haven't faced-off in the postseason before in their respective cities they did however meet in the playoffs in 1981 when the Atlanta Flames lost to the Minnesota North Stars 4-2 in a seven-game series ... The Flames finished the regular season with a record of 20-18-5 against Western Conference opponents, and were 7-8-4 against the Central Division.

THE LINE-UP:

FORWARDS:
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic - Sam Bennett - Dillon Dube
Mark Jankowski - Derek Ryan - Tobias Rieder
DEFENCE:
Mark Giordano - TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
Derek Forbort - Erik Gustafsson
GOALTENDER:
Cam Talbot

50-50 UPDATE:

The Flames organization released this statement today in regards to our 50-50 draw: 'Thank you Flames fans for your support of the Calgary Flames Foundation's 50/50 program. It is necessary to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, we must postpone our online 50/50 raffle until further notice. We will continue to work alongside our software partner to enhance our online 50/50 system and ensure we can deliver a positive experience for Flames fans. We appreciate your patience and hope you will participate in future game day draws.'

UP NEXT:

It's another unusual 2020 playoff back-to-back as the Flames and Stars meet in Game 2 Thursday at 8:30 p.m., followed 24 hours later by Game 3 at the same time.