Momentum shifts as Flames tie series with Stars

DALLAS — Johnny Gaudreau, as he skated to centre ice for a third-period penalty shot, admitted he was feeling “a tad nervous.”

The Calgary Flames’ fan base had, over the past couple of days, been feeling more than just a touch of anxiety.

Both can, at least for now, exhale.

Gaudreau buried that breakaway opportunity, capping a filthy deke to his backhand with a five-hole finish, and the Flames delivered their most impressive performance of these playoffs so far in rolling to a 4-1 victory in Game 4 of their opening-round date with the Dallas Stars.

After falling behind in the series with back-to-back losses, you could feel the momentum shifting during Monday’s affair at American Airlines Center. The visitors were strong from start to finish, and downright dominant for stretches.

“It’s just exciting to get that win,” Gaudreau said after the Flames squared this best-ofseven slugfest at two wins apiece. “That was a big game for us. Before heading back to Calgary, we wanted to tie this thing up.

“We have to do the same thing we did tonight on Wednesday.”

Indeed, this was the sort of showing that you’d like to copy-and-paste again and again.

The sort, quite frankly, that most were expecting from the heavily favoured Flames.

During an eye-opening — and, for the hosts, lung-burning — sequence in the second period, Stars teammates John Klingberg and Jason Robertson were both stuck on the ice for north of four minutes as the Pacific Division pennant-winners played an older-brother-esque game of keepaway. That length of shift is even frowned upon in beer league.

“For the most part, I thought that was our game,” said Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson, who opened the scoring with a bar-down beauty on a five-on-three power play in the middle stanza. “We had around 50 shots on net. I think we had a lot of long shifts in their zone. Overall, a good game, a good 60 minutes. We didn’t take too many penalties, too, so we got to play five-on-five, and that’s where we’re a really good team.”

Stars netminder Jake Oettinger is the reason this was still a one-goal game when Gaudreau was awarded a penalty shot with about a dozen minutes remaining. He’d been hooked by Klingberg, perhaps still sucking wind after that marathon shift.

In Game 3, of course, the Flames’ superstar winger had been stoned by Oettinger on a late breakaway.