The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Calgary, where the Flames scored three goals in the third to force overtime and a shootout before defeating the Dallas Stars, 4-3.
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal in the rally and also scored in the skills competition.
“It was a great team effort tonight,” Gaudreau said. “It was another one of those comebacks like last season where guys were showing a ton of effort until the final buzzer there. We’re just excited to get the win there. We love playing at home so we’ve got to string together a couple wins here in the next week.”
It was a much needed win for a team that has languished much of the campaign thus far.
Mikael Backlund and Dougie Hamilton also scored in the third for Calgary who gave a glimpse what is possible and reflection of last season’s club.
“Games like this, it brings back the taste of last year, of those comebacks,” Calgary coach Bob Hartley said. “You never want to get down in a game but gosh, those comebacks feel good. The boys were having fun in the room. The music and everything. … For me, that’s the best part of coaching and the best part of being in a team sport. You see those emotions, you see finally the rewards for hard work. I was very proud for the boys.”
Jason Spezza, Cody Eakin and Mattias Janmark scored for the Stars who built a 3-0 lead midway through the second period.
“We just stopped playing hockey,” Stars forward Jamie Benn said. “We knew they were a desperate hockey team over there. We knew they got some firepower and just a pretty embarrassing loss.
“That was pretty embarrassing. We really have to learn our lesson.”
In Chicago, the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane extended his point streak to 20 games but the Hawks dropped a 2-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild Tuesday.
Ryan Suter scored the game-winner with 7:56 left in regulation and Jason Pominville scored in the first when he staked the Wild to an early 1-0 lead.
“We hadn’t played well and hadn’t played consistent in a long time, and now we finally put a game together,” said Suter, who cleaned up a rebound of two shot attempts by center Mikael Granlund (two assists). “It’s something that we can build on. We hadn’t really been playing that consistent and now we finally got that.”
Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves for the win.
“It’s huge just to get back in the win column and play a really solid game,” Dubnyk said. “It’s easy to start to look at the end result of the game when you’ve lost a few in the last little while. I think we did a good job tonight of not doing that and just keeping it as small as we could. Even though they get the one on the power play, we just stuck to our game and played a solid road game. That’s what we need and we’ve got to continue that.”
Corey Crawford made 34 saves in the loss.
“We haven’t had as much [offensive-zone time] as we’d like,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “[We haven’t had] that strength in the puck area, [protected] the puck, [been] hard going to the net, first to pucks, [or] relentless with our sticks in the puck area [or] battle area. We try to control the game in that area, making them defend, and [there hasn’t] been enough of that.”
In Newark, the Colorado Avalanche started Reto Berra in net and he made 27 saves as the Avs defeated the Devils, 2-1.
“I love the fact Reto makes it a competition,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said. “This is how we will get back in the playoff race; we need solid goaltending and we’re aware of that. But we still have a lot of confidence in [Varlamov] and we’re confident he’ll bounce back as well.”
Colorado got goals from Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie in the second period to take a 2-0 lead into the final frame.
“That line (of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Duchene) is playing really well,” Roy said. “They’ve really clicked and have played a lot of minutes. [Duchene] is always around the net, so there’s no secret to his game.
“If you stay on the outside, it’s hard to score because the goaltenders are too good, so you have to be in around the net and [Duchene] has beautiful hands. He’s capable of roofing a shot from in close and I’m happy for him.”
Kyle Palmieri scored early in the third for New Jersey but they could not muster enough quality chances to challenge Berra.
“We were better in the third,” Devils center Adam Henrique said. “We were getting the puck in, getting some offense and had some chances. We had a big faceoff goal to keep things going, but just couldn’t find a way to get the second goal.”
Cory Schneider made 23 in the loss.
“Obviously, it would be nice to keep it rolling but we need to put a little streak together here because we’re kind of win-lose, win-lose right now,” Duchene said. “We got to see if we can get a win on Thursday and hopefully a win on Saturday (at Minnesota) too.”
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