In Dallas, the visiting Calgary Flames scored four goals in the second period to take a 6-1 lad on Saturday afternoon, then had to hold off the Stars who scored four straight to close the gap to 6-5 in the third period.
That was as close as Dallas would get in the 6-5 loss, the win stretched the Flames’ point streak to five games.
The Flames improved to 21-14-9.
Dan Vladar made 29 saves in the Calgary win.
“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.”
Calgary scored 25 seconds into the game on a marker from Andrew Mangiapane, and Trevor Lewis pushed the lead to 2-0 on a strike in the ninth minute of the period.
Dallas closed the gap to 2-1 on a shorthanded goal from Jamie Benn at 15:34 of the first.
The middle frame was dominated by Calgary who scored four straight for a 6-1 lead.
“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.”
Elias Lindholm scored on the power play, and Nazem Kadri made it 4-1 on a disputed goal that was allowed.
Rasmus Andersson and Chris Tanev then pushed the Calgary lead to 6-1.
“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.”
Tyler Sequin stopped the Calgary run with 46 left in the second to send the game to third period, 6-2.
In the third, Joe Pavelski started the Dallas rally with a double to get them within 6-4.
“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.”
With four and half minutes left on the clock in the third, Colin Miller pulled the Stars to within one at 6-5, but that was as much offense as Dallas could muster, late.
The Stars dropped to 25-12-7.
“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.”
Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves in the Stars loss.
“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.”
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