Calgary Flames romp past Dallas Stars 7-4
David Moss scored twice and earned an assist, as the Calgary Flames overcame the Dallas Stars 7-4, at Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday night.
Moss praised his team-mates performance on the night by saying, “We got pucks to the net and were fortunate to get a few bounces. We needed more bodies at the net and we certainly did that tonight and were rewarded.”
Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen each tallied a goal and had an assist for Calgary, who had dropped six of their last eight games coming into the contest. Brendan Morrison and Alex Tanguay both also found the net and also added an assist for the winners. Mikael
Backlund had another goal in the win.
Henrik Karlsson started between the pipes, turning aside 17-of-21 shots, as the Flames halted a three-game losing streak at home.
Nicklas Grossman and James Neal each netted a goal for Dallas, who had a five-game winning streak stopped. Brad Richards notched a goal and had an assist, while Brenden Morrow also lit the lamp for the Stars in the losing effort. Andrew Raycroft was shelled
for all seven goals on just 19 shots.
Dallas Coach Marc Crawford was critical of his goaltender’s performance after the game. He said "We didn't get a very good performance from out goaltender tonight. Then we made a big mistake in the third period after we got it close. In a game like this,
you have to keep the opponents' chances to a minimum. We battled back, but it wasn't enough."
It took the Flames just three and a half minutes to open the scoring for a 1-0 lead. The move started when Morrison picked up his own rebound and sent a centring pass to Tanguay, who tucked it into the net.
However, the Stars responded five minutes later. Morrow caught Karlsson looking the other way and quickly snapped a shot into the net to tie the game at 1-1.
The Stars then grabbed their only lead of the game with eight minutes left in the opening period. Richards got the credit for this, as he charged down the right wing with a player moving toward the net, and ripped a shot over the left shoulder of Calgary’s
goalie.
However, the Flames tied the game at 2-2 three minutes later. The move started when Jokinen, skating on a 2-on-1 advantage, fired a shot from the right circle past Karlsson for his first goal in 11 play-offs.
Calgary took the command of the game by scoring three goals in the middle period.
The Flames took the lead again to make it a 3-2 game just after the midway mark of the second stanza. The play was set up by Tim Jackman, who threw a pass from outside the right circle to the inside of the circle, where Backlund knocked it into the net.
Moss then extended the Flames two-goal cushion with nearly three minutes left in the middle session. The goal came when he slipped a loose puck from the right circle between Raycroft’s pads for the 100th goal of his career.
Morrison pushed the lead to 5-2 for the Flames less than a minute later, as he blasted a wrist shot from the right circle on a 2-on-1 break.
Grossman drew the Stars within a goal to make it a 5-3 game with nearly 45 seconds to play in the second period. He banged a wrist shot from the high slot that went through a scramble and into the net for his first goal in 130 contests.
The Stars then hit back again to make it a 5-4 game just 30 seconds into the final period. It began when Jamie Langenbrunner, during a turnover in the Flames end, let go a shot off the crossbar which Neal redirected into the net as he fell to the ice.
However, the Flames recovered their two-goal advantage 6-4 less than four minutes later. The credit goes to Jarome Iginla, who received a pass from behind the net at the left side, switched to the backhand and tipped the puck home.
“It was a different game. A hard game on the goalies with not a lot of shots either way but all of a sudden it would be a point-blank chance,” said Flames captain Iginla, who reached 20 goals for the 12th straight season. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.
Some nights you get 40 or 45 shots and a ton of good looks and you come out of it with not very many. Tonight, we were opportunistic.”
Moss rounded off the scoring on a power-play with eight minutes left and sealed a 7-4 win for Calgary.
After the game Dallas Center Mike Ribeiro believed that his team was unlucky to lose the game. He said, “They scored on the chances they had and we made a few mistakes that cost us. Usually our goalies make some crazy saves that keeps us in the game but
today wasn’t the case.”
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