In Edmonton, John Klingberg scored in the third period for the Dallas to Stars to snap a 1-1 tie and defeat the Calgary Flames, 2-1, on Tuesday evening.
“I think (Mattias) Janmark did a great job picking up the puck on the boards on his backhand, holding onto it and finding me on the weak side,” Klingberg said. “That’s something we’ve talked about as a team, trying to get more O-zone. … He took control of the puck, had a guy on his back and still made a play, so I could just wrist that shot through, and luckily it went in.”
Dallas leads the series 3-2 with the Game 5 win.
“We just have to play one good game,” the Flames’ Milan Lucic said. “Our game is good enough to give us what we want and take us to where we want to go. I know we need to win two games to win the series, but we can’t think like that. We have to think about playing one really good game, bring our best game we’ve had all season long and that’s what all our focus and energy needs to go to.”
Anton Khudobin made 28 save to get the win.
“You don’t want to be down 3-2, so I think we’re in the right spot,” Dallas’ Andrew Cogliano said. “We have guys in our room that have been there before and know what it takes, and we have young guys that are learning as well. For us, we approach the next game, we get ready to play a good one and come out hard like we did tonight and that’s it. You’ve got to go one game at a time. We’ll leave this behind after today and go from there.”
Mikael Backlund was the lone Flames striker in the loss.
“It’s the first time we’ve been in a 2-2 situation going into a Game 5 when you know the winner has an upper hand in terms of not having to play an elimination game in Game 6,” Calgary head coach Geoff Ward said. “I thought our guys were a little nervous in the first (period).”
Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars.
“We’re going to move forward pretty quick,” Benn said. “To win a fourth game in any series is obviously the hardest. We expect Calgary to bring their best.”
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Stars highlights]
Cam Talbot made 30 saves in the losing effort.
“It’s going to be tough,” Rasmus Andersson said. “You’ve got to play one good game, get on the forecheck, get more pucks to the net. I don’t know what the shots were today (32-29 for Dallas), but I still think we can put more pucks to the net and try to work them more down low.”
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