Calgary Flames even the series with a win over the Dallas Stars on Monday night – Calgary | The Canadian News

After missing a breakaway in a previous game, Johnny Gaudreau made no mistake on his penalty shot.

Gaudreau converting a penalty kick in the third period propelled the Calgary Flames to Monday’s 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars to even their playoff series at two wins apiece.

Elias Lindholm and Rasmus Andersson also scored and Mikael Backlund added an empty net goal for the Flames, who generated three unanswered goals before Dallas answered in the third period.

Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for the win in another goalkeeping duel with Dallas counterpart Jake Oettinger, who stopped 50 shots in the loss.

Tyler Seguin scored the only goal for the Stars.

The best-of-seven series returns to Calgary for Wednesday’s Game 5 at the Saddledome, where the Flames went 25-9-7 in the regular season.

Game 6 is Friday in Dallas and Game 7, if necessary, would be Sunday in Calgary.

“It’s nice to get that win, but I think the momentum is that we go home and play in front of our fans,” Gaudreau said.

“Now it’s a three-game series.”

Calgary (50-21-11) topped the Pacific Division and ranked sixth in the NHL in the regular season. The No. 15 All-Stars (46-30-6) entered the postseason as the first wild card in the Western Conference.

The Flames won 1-0 and lost 2-0 at the Saddledome before the Stars beat Calgary 4-2 in Game 3 at the American Airlines Center.

When a best-of-seven series is tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has an all-time series record of 219-58 (.791), according to NHL stats.

The Flames trailed by one goal late in Game 3 on Saturday when Gaudreau failed to get the puck up over Oettinger’s bag with just over three minutes remaining in the game.

Stars defenseman John Klingberg caught him on a breakaway to get the penalty kick Monday.

With more time to plan his moves on Monday, the winger stretched out Oettinger with a backhand and scored five holes at 7:47 of the third period.

“Since Game 1, I felt like I had been playing good, playing hard against this team. The results weren’t there,” Gaudreau said.

“The last match had a breakaway with two minutes to go. He wanted that one back. Tonight, a different story. I found the net.

After nearly 16 four-on-four minutes in the second and third games of the series, more even-strength hockey was played in Game 4.

That favored Calgary, ranked sixth in the NHL in even strength goals.

The Flames generated more sustained offensive zone pressure than Dallas.

“I think we had about 50 shots and we had a lot of long at-bats in his zone,” Andersson said.

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“We didn’t take too many penalties tonight so we can play five on five and that’s where we’re a really good team.”

Lindholm produced just the Flames’ third even-force goal in the series at 11:53 of the third period for a 3-0 Calgary lead.

Gaudreau from the boards fed him into the hash marks where Lindholm beat Oettinger with a low wrist strike for his third of the series.

Dallas responded with a power play goal to cut the deficit. Seguin’s wrist shot out of the race and he beat Markstrom to the other side at 15:03.

Calgary had outshot Dallas in each of the first three games, but was limited to just three goals and two of them even strength.

A tenacious defense by the Stars in front of their crease continued to deny Calgary second chances on the few rebounds Oettinger allowed, but the Flames continued to pummel the Dallas defense until cracks appeared.

It took a five-on-three goal at 9:41 into the second period for the Flames to break through on Monday.

Andersson’s shot just above the pin marks beat Oettinger’s high post side after stars Jani Hakanpaa (trip) and Radek Faksa (high shot) were penalized within 12 seconds.

Markstrom and Oettinger traded heroics throughout the game.

Dallas gave up the puck deep in their zone late in the second period, but Oettinger deflected Gaudreau’s attempt from close range.

Markstrom fended off Stars forward Tyler Seguin by driving to his door four minutes into the period. Calgary outscored the hosts 19-8 in a scoreless first period and held a 39-23 margin after two.

Oettinger denied Calgary’s Tyler Toffoli a golden opportunity on a first-half rebound. A prone Oettinger gloved Toffoli’s attempt to lift the puck over the expanding Stars’ goaltender at 9:14.

Gaudreau missed some changes early in the game. His head whipped as he and Vladislav Namestnikov collided shoulder to shoulder in the star zone.

Gaudreau went to the locker room but was back on the ice midway through the first half.

“I’m fine,” he said.

Flames head coach Darryl Sutter traded forward Brett Ritchie for defenseman Michael Stone to field 11 forwards and seven defensemen on Monday.

Sutter wanted reinforcements in the rear. He felt that the cost of the defenseman’s extra minutes in the series opener, when Andersson committed a game misconduct at the first-period buzzer, was beginning to surface in the series.

“We wanted some fresh legs in there,” the trainer said.

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