New twist on an old saying
First goal proves crucial so far in Stars, Flames playoff series
Asked after Thursday’s seriesevening shutout loss if he was worried about the sudden lack of offence from his squad, Calgary Flames bench boss Darryl Sutter simply shrugged.
“Well, if you score the last one ... ” he reasoned. “Or, the way this is going, if you score the first one ...
“It’s quite identical to the game the other night,” he added. “Just reverse who scored first.”
First goal wins.
It’s a new twist on the old saying.
It’s also the story of this series so far.
This is not a gambling advice column, but if you’re betting on this best-of-seven battle between the Flames and Dallas Stars, you might want to hammer the under.
The Stars evened the things up with a 2-0 blanking in Game 2 at the Saddledome.
In six periods so far, these first-round foes have combined for three tallies. Yeah, combined for three — and yeah, that includes Thursday’s late empty-netter.
“Just gotta score, gotta bear down and put the puck in the net, starting with myself,” said Flames superstar Johnny Gaudreau, who managed to hit the net with only two of his 11 shot attempts — four were blocked and five missed the target. “We had plenty of chances to put the puck in the net. We didn’t tonight. That’s the bottom line.”
The action now shifts south for tonight’s Game 3 at American Airlines Center. If any team snipes three, there should be some sort of promotional giveaway.
The Flames’ lone lamplighting in this series came in the early stages of the opener. Stars netminder Jake Oettinger has been spotless for 115 minutes since then, including a 29-save goose-egg Thursday.
In front of their sophomore puck-stopper, the boys from the Big D did a masterful job of clogging up the neutral zone. It might have been easier to get to the front of a beer line on the Saddledome concourse than to carry a puck from one blue-line to the other.
“It’s playoff hockey — it’s not easy to score goals in the first place, let alone playing a team like this that plays extremely defensive,” said Flames forward Tyler Toffoli. “We have to find a way to dig deep. Our goal was to go into Dallas and win two games anyway, so it doesn’t really change our mindset, I don’t think. We have to go there and be prepared to play in Game 3 and just try to take control of the series again.”