recap

The Flames were 12 seconds away from taking a 3-1 series stranglehold on the Dallas Stars.
However, Joe Pavelski scored his third goal of the game to tie it up before John Klingberg fired the dagger 16:05 in extra time as Calgary fell 5-4 to Dallas.
The victory evened up their opening-round series at two games apiece.

It was a challenging outing for the Flames, who were whistled for seven penalties - including five straight through the second and into the third - but had put themselves in a good position as time wound down in the tilt.
The Flames converted on two powerplays of their own in the contest and got yet another short-handed marker, their third in as many games, as special teams continued to be the wind in their sails.
Sam Bennett had a pair of goals to pace the Flames, while Cam Talbot was stellar yet again, making 57 saves in the contest, as Calgary was outshot 62-40 in the game.
Matthew Tkachuk missed his second straight outing, while the Stars said Ben Bishop was unfit to play, with Anton Khudobin starting in the Dallas pipes. It was his third outing of the series, also playing Games 1 and 3.
The Stars had come out with purpose and controlled the game early in both of the last two tilts.
The Flames said they'd flip the script on that - and they did.
They recorded the first five shots of the game, hemmed the Stars in their zone early, while Dallas iced the puck a few times in the opening minutes.
The Flames impressive PK was called upon early when Bennett was whistled for interference right off a face-off in the Stars zone at the 2:52 mark.
Stars sniper Alexander Radulov missed a wide-open net in Game 3 when a rebound came right to his stick off a Tyler Seguin shot and he fired it wide.
Fast forward a few days and he had a terrible case of deja vu, getting a rebound in nearly the same spot with Talbot out of place and an open cage - Derek Forbort rushing between the pipes to play goal - but Radulov again unable to get the handle and firing it wide.
The Flames got their first powerplay exactly three minutes later, Mattias Janmark slashing Dillon Dube on the gloves.
The Flames had a few chances but no great shots on Khudobin. The most dangerous scoring chance came courtesy of Jason Dickinson, who danced up the ice short-handed and finished his rush with a one-handed diving attempt to poke the puck past Talbot, who made a huge stop.
Right after the man-up chance expired, Esa Lindell kept up the Stars recent penchant for ringing the iron, putting one off the post through traffic, Talbot able to smother the rebound amid a goal-mouth pile-up.
The march to the box continued when Jamie Benn was sent off for slashing Dube near the midway point of the frame, Milan Lucic taking exception to the hard smack on his linemates arm, skating to the Stars captain and having words.
On the second Flames PP, they struggled to get setup in the zone and weren't able to get it on the rails.
Sean Monahan later took a great feed from Johnny Gaudreau while five-on-five and one-timed a shot in the slot off a rush looking for five-hole but was denied by Khudobin.
Elias Lindholm was then sent off for cross-checking with two minutes left in the first, the Stars wasting little time finding the first goal of the game - 11 seconds, to be exact.
Klingberg wristed a shot from the point into heavy traffic, with Pavelski finding the rebound and firing it home.
It was the first time the Stars scored the opening goal in their last 12 games.
The middle stanza had a wild start.
After going 0-2 on the PP in the first - and 0-for on their last four cracks - the Flames got an early chance in the second and made good.
Gaudreau got his first of the series - and third of the post-season at 1:54.
A shot by Lindholm off the half-boards led to a free-for-all around the net, Bennett and Monahan each getting cracks at the puck before Gaudreau - parked to the side of the left post - put a backhand in.

DAL@CGY, Gm4: Gaudreau buries loose puck for PPG

Pavelski - who scored plenty of big goals against the Flames during his long tenure with the San Jose Sharks - held onto the puck on a 2-on-1 just 1:20 later and snapped a wrister far-side, off the post and in for his second of the game.
Then a scant 16 seconds later, the Flames got another powerplay.
And another goal.

DAL@CGY, Gm4: Bennett sizzles slap shot home for PPG

Gaudreau gained the zone and passed to Monahan, who feed to the puck to Bennett at the top of the right face-off circle and he stepped into a one-timer on a rolling puck that sizzled high glove-sive on Khudobin at 3:57.
Bennett scored another with 14:50 gone, converting a rebound off a shot by Lucic after a neutral zone turnover. It was Bennett's fifth marker of the post-season.

DAL@CGY, Gm4: Bennett nets rebound for second goal

But the well-worn trails to the box continued, with Talbot called for tripping on Blake Comeau, Lucic taking a seat in the bin for his goaltender.
The Stars leading goalscorer through the regular season - Denis Gurianov - tied the game up, one-timing a cross-ice feed from his knee out near the left faceoff circle that found net shortside.
With six seconds left in the period, Bennett was called for a charge on Dickinson.
The Flames killed off the rest of the minor to start the third period but at the 2:58 mark, Mark Giordano was sent off for hooking Mattias Janmark.
But then it was time to cue the Tobias Rieder short-handed highlight reel.
Derek Ryan got the puck into the Stars zone, battling with Klingberg along the boards, able to sending a fantastic spinning backhand pass to a streaking Rieder who was hollering for the puck, tipping it five-hole past Khudobin.
It was his third short-handed tally of the post-season.

DAL@CGY, Gm4: Rieder scores SHG in 3rd period

Talbot later made one of his biggest stops of the game with the teams even strength, getting his blocker on a tight-in offering from Roope Hintz.
At 7:58, Monahan was whistled for high sticking Comeau.
With just five second left in the advantage after some great PK work, Mikael Backlund was called for tripping on Hintz.
Dickinson scored to tie it up with 2:29 to play - but superpest Corey Perry was parked behind Talbot in the paint, interfering with the goaltender.
Flames coach Geoff Ward challenged and the officials agreed, overturning it.
The Stars pulled Khudobin with just over two minutes left and absolutely heaped on the pressure, owning the zone until Talbot made a save with 45.2 second left that led to a timeout. Pavelski scored after.
In the OT frame, the Flames had some great chances before Klingberg's winner:
- Backlund made a cross-crease pass to Rieder who was all alone, but snapped his stick on the one-timer with the puck going wide; - Dube had a great opportunity in tght but couldn't convert; - A three-man rush where Monahan passed to Andersson who threaded a pass to Gaudreau whose offering nearly squeezed between the glove and body of Khodobin.

THEY SAID IT:

Sean Monahan on the result:
"Anytime you lose, it sucks, but the series is 2-2 and we have to look forward to the next game. I thought we competed the whole game and had our chances, too. We've got to look at the positives and be ready for the next game."

"Anytime you lose, it sucks,"

Bennett on disappointment:
"I thought we played a good game. I thought we were competing all night. obviously when we're up a goal, they're going to be putting on the pressure and doing everything when we're defending. I thought our penalty-killers and defenders did a good job. It's unfortunate they were able to put one in in the last 10 seconds, but that's playoffs."

"It's tough to lose no matter which way you lose"

Coach Geoff Ward on looking to Game 5:
"We played a good hockey game. That's playoffs. I thought it was a good hockey game. I really did. Now, we re-group and get ready for (Tuesday) for Game 5. This is the beauty of playoffs. How can you not be a hockey fan watching this stuff, boy? It's easy for us to put this behind us. We've been doing it for a while now and the guys' focus is in the right place."

"This is the beauty of playoffs"

Giordano on moving on:
"We have to re-group. It's tough to lose no matter which way you lose. They were putting pucks on net. On their 6-on-5, they threw it on net and had a lot of guys there. It was a back-and-forth game there in overtime. We had some looks, but unfortunately we had that broken stick and it gave them possession and they capitalized. But it was a good game. We have to take from it what we have to and move on. ... It's been a tight series and we expect it to be like that the rest of the way."

"It sucks - tough break"

THE LINEUP:

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

UP NEXT:

Game 5 goes Tuesday with the time still TBD.