In Calgary, the Flames let a 2-1 lead get away from them in the second period on Wednesday night.
The visiting Dallas Stars scored three times in the middle frame to take a 4-2 lead into the third period, and eventual 4-3 win for the Flames.
“We’re working through it,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’re working on our game. We’re building our game. There’s lessons being learned. At the same time we’re 6-1-1, so it’s good, and these are tough teams and tough buildings and desperate teams we’re playing. We’ll take as many wins as we can get.”
Jake Oettinger made 43 saves in the Dallas win.
Calgary took a 1-0 lead at 5:28 of the first on Connor Zary‘s first career NHL goal. Zay was called up from the Calgary Wranglers of the American Hockey League.
“I remember it hitting me,” Zary, 22, said. “I remember just trying to find it and it dropped down right in front of me and I put it in. I just remember looking around, just happy as can be, just screaming. It was pretty cool.”
Dallas replied with a shorthanded goal fro Jamie Benn with just under a minute left in the opening period. for a 1-1 tie.
The Flames reclaimed the lead early in the middle frame on a marker from Andrew Mangiapane at 1:57.
From there, the Stars’ offense took over, with the defense shutting down the Calgary push.
Dallas’ Jason Robertson scored at 4:35 of the second for 2-2 tie.
The Stars took a 3-2 lead on a goal from Evgenii Dadonov midway through the second period.
With 12 seconds left in the middle frame, Mason Marchment pushed the advantage to 4-2 for Dallas.
Calgary dropped to 2-7-1.
“I think if we continue to play the way we did in that third period, this is a group that’s capable of winning a few in a row while playing like that,” Flames forward Nazem Kadri said. “Just got to build off it. Throughout this stretch I felt that there were maybe a couple games that could’ve went our way and didn’t, and it’s our responsibility to fight through it.”
MacKenzie Weegar made it interesting at 2:20 of the third when he scored to trim the deficit to 4-3, the Dallas defense held for the win.
“I think you’ve got to move on quick,” Weegar said. “If you get frustrated, you get down on yourself in this league, it’ll eat you up and spit you out. You’ve got to stay positive, you’ve got to stick with it. There’s a great leadership group and great guys in this room. When times are tough like this we’ve got to rally with each other, we’ve got to care for each other, and build confidence for the guys that might not be feeling it or build confidence all over the ice. That’s what we’ve got to do as a team here.”
Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves in the loss.
“I thought our bounce-back after their second goal was big,” Benn said. “‘Robo’ got a big goal for us and got us some momentum. Jakey was the star of the third. I don’t know how many shots they have, but we have to have a better third and improve on that.”
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