Flames Drop Decision In Dallas

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars scored four times in the third period, erasing a solid Flames road effort to claim a 6-2 win on Sunday at American Airlines Center.

Roope Hintz's goal 5:13 into the third period proved to be the decider, while Jonathan Huberdeau and Connor Zary each found the back of the net for Calgary, who despite a quick start, and strong middle frame, fell in the first of their two-game Central Division road trip.

Just a minute into proceedings, the Flames found themselves in front, going ahead on a Huberdeau goal that was created thanks to a strong neutral zone check by Martin Pospisil.

The Slovak winger threw a hit in front of the Stars bench, jamming the puck free, allowing Nazem Kadri to carry it into the Dallas zone on the left wing. From the circle, he zipped a pass across to Huberdeau, who one-timed home his team-leading ninth goal of the season.

The hosts replied just over three minutes later, as a spell of 4-on-4 play ended. Wyatt Johnston jumped into the Flames zone, cut to the middle and snapped a puck home.

Wolf was the busier of the two netminders in period one, making 11 saves. His best came just shy of the seven-minute mark, when he stayed with Hintz as he cut across the goalmouth, denying the Dallas forward’s attempt to slide the puck through the five-hole.

Calgary’s PK units had a busy frame, too, successfully completing three kills. Walker Duehr led the way with a pair of blocks.

Dallas took the lead 7:47 into a tight-checking second period.

After stepping out of the penalty box, Jason Robertson grabbed the puck and jumped into a 2-on-1 rush. Despite Pospisil’s best efforts on the backcheck, the Dallas forward got a low shot away that beat Wolf for his sixth goal of the season.

But from there, the Flames turned up the heat, hemming the Stars in their own zone and forcing their hosts into several icings thanks to relentless pressure on the wall.

That hard work paid off with just under four minutes left on the clock.

Andrei Kuzmenko gained the zone on the left wing, stopped short of the circle, and fired a pass across to Daniil Miromanov on the right side.

As traffic started to form, Miromanov sent a high shot goalward, Oettinger spraying the rebound into the low slot where Zary was waiting to angle the disc across the line with his skate.

Wolf made six saves in the period including a glove stop off Mavrik Bourque on a Stars odd-man rush.

Shots were even at 19 apiece through 40 minutes.

The third period belonged to the Stars.

Hintz gave Dallas the lead at the 5:13 mark on an odd-man rush. He received a return pass in the low spot and found space to slip the puck past Wolf.

Sam Steel made it 4-2 with eight minutes to play, before the Stars rounded out the evening’s offence with a pair of goals from blueliner Thomas Harley.

Oettinger finished the night with 29 saves, as Calgary held a 31-28 edge in shots on goal on the night.

MacKenzie Weegar led the Flames with 24:16 of ice-time, while Mikael Backlund had a team-high five shots on goal.

Calgary outhit Dallas 32-11 on the night, Pospisil leading the way with eight bodychecks.

The Lineup:

FORWARDS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Martin Pospisil
Yegor Sharangovich - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato
Blake Coleman - Connor Zary - Walker Duehr
Jakob Pelletier - Kevin Rooney - Andrei Kuzmenko

DEFENCE

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov
Jake Bean - Brayden Pachal

GOALTENDER

Dustin Wolf (starter)
Dan Vladar

The Numbers Game:

Shots: CGY 31, DAL 28

Powerplay: CGY 0-3, DAL 0-4

Faceoffs: CGY 47.5%, DAL 52.5%

Blocked Shots: CGY xx, DAL xx

Hits: CGY 32, DAL 11

Takeaways: CGY 5, DAL 4

*5-on-5 Scoring Chances: CGY 24, DAL 19

*5-on-5 High-Danger Scoring Chances: CGY 6, DAL 10

*Courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

They Said It:

Up Next:

The two-game road trip concludes Tuesday night in Nashville (6 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West), before the Flames return to the Scotiabank Saddledome for a five-game, pre-Christmas homestand beginning Thursday against Tampa Bay (7 p.m., Sportsnet One). Click for tickets