Flames hold off Stars, extend point streak to 5 games

DALLAS --Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist for the Calgary Flames, who held off the Dallas Stars for a 6-5 win at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Rasmus Andersson and Chris Tanev each had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar each had two assists for the Flames (21-14-9), who are 3-0-2 in their past five games. Dan Vladar made 29 saves.
"Those games are hard, especially for a goalie," Vladar said. "I saw some shots early, and then as the game went on, we took over big time. It was a 6-1 game, and my job was to not let them get back in it, and they did. I've just got to make that save to not let them get any momentum. Not the best game for me, but two points, huge."
Joe Pavelski had two goals and an assist, and Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist for the Stars (25-12-7), who have lost two straight (0-1-1). Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves.
"It definitely wasn't [Wedgewood]'s fault. Just didn't play well enough for long enough," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "I think that's the bottom line. You're down 2-0 before it feels like the puck even drops. This time of year against good teams, it's hard to dig out of. I don't think any parts of our game were good enough for long enough period tonight to deserve to win."

Seguin scored with 46 seconds remaining in the second period on a shot from the high slot to cut the lead to 6-2.
"We talked a lot about that Dallas is good at home (12-5-3), and we wanted to have a good first period and make sure we did things right," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. "We did that. A really good first period and we had momentum all the way through the second. We lost Robertson late, and he feeds Seguin, and they make it the 6-2 goal. They got the momentum, and that comes into the third."
Pavelski then made it 6-3 at 7:19 of the third period from in front before cutting it to 6-4 at 12:54 with a deflection of Heiskanen's point shot.
"We already know we can battle back in games," Pavelski said. "That's something this room has established already. There are nights over 82 games [like this], but something you pride yourself on is working. If things go wrong and you're working, then they go wrong. But our effort, our compete, wasn't there. We were late to battles and not coming up with pucks, and that's something that's on the guys, and we addressed it a little bit better there in the third. But that's something you pride yourself on first."
Colin Miller scored from the point to get the Stars to within 6-5 with 4:37 remaining.
"We're a group that never thinks we're out of the fight," Seguin said. "We know what we've done in the third period, especially in this rink. I think our biggest thing for our group in here is just letting down [Wedgewood]. Obviously, he doesn't play that many games and has a tough job being a backup and always working his butt off, and we didn't help him out at all tonight."
Andrew Mangiapane scored 25 seconds into the first period on a wraparound to give Calgary a 1-0 lead.

Trevor Lewis made it 2-0 at 8:10 on a rebound on a power play.
"It was a tough start for us," Heiskanen said. "I think we didn't work hard enough, and they got a couple of goals early. It was a tough start, maybe first and second (periods) were pretty bad, but the third was better. We can't play like that if we want to win games."
Jamie Benn scored short-handed at 15:34 to cut the lead to 2-1 after Ty Dellandrea forced a turnover behind Calgary's net.
Elias Lindholm gave the Flames a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal at 10:54 of the second period when a shot through traffic from Tyler Toffoli redirected in off his leg.
Kadri pushed it to 4-1 at 13:07 on a shot from the high slot. DeBoer challenged the play for offside, but the call stood after a video review.
Andersson made it 5-1 at 16:38, and Tanev extended it to 6-1 at 17:57 on a shot that deflected in off Denis Gurianov's stick.
"Good first. They came out in the second pretty hard, [Vladar] made a couple of good saves," Tanev said. "Then we sort of struck a bunch of shifts together and we were able to capitalize on our chances. That's what we need to do more of.
"Crazy third, obviously. Most importantly got the two points. But we let them control the last 12 minutes pretty good, so we've got to do a better job. A 6-1 lead should be pretty easy to close the game out."
NOTE: Robertson has 60 points (29 goals, 31 assists) in 44 games this season. The only player in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to reach the mark it in fewer games was Bobby Smith (38 games in 1981-82; 40 games in 1979-80).