Dillon Dube scored twice and Rasmus Andersson netted the game winner as the Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 to take the opening game in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Tuesday in Edmonton.
With the score tied late in the second period, Andersson restored Calgary's lead. The defenseman was allowed into the offensive zone untouched and fired a shot from the top of the right circle that went off Andrej Sekera's stick and into the top corner with 3:59 remaining in the frame.
Calgary goaltender Cam Talbot regrouped after surrounding an unlucky game-tying goal to record a 24-save performance in the win. He made a clutch stop on Joe Pavelski with 10 seconds remaining on the clock while the Flames withstood being short-handed for the final 50 seconds.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be Thursday.
The Flames showed the advantage of playing a qualifying round series in the opening period, and a pair of Dube goals were the reward.
Dube, drafted in 2016 with second-round pick acquired from Dallas, opened the scoring with a power-play marker 10:54 into the clash, a perfect one-timer after Milan Lucic sent a cross-ice feed off the rush. It's the ninth straight outing the Stars have surrendered the first goal of the game. Lucic has collected points in all five games since the restart. His long regular-season point streak was two.
Dube made his first career two-goal game even more memorable with his second of the game at the 18:02 mark. With full speed through the neutral zone, he zipped around Sekera before completing a backhand-forehand deke to make it a 2-0 game.
To their credit, the Stars regrouped after the break and evened the score with a pair of goals nine seconds apart just past the midway point of the second period.
First, Denis Gurianov put Dallas on the board at 10:52 of the frame thanks to a lucky break. His point shot ricocheted off Flames defenseman TJ Brodie and into the cage.
In the blink of an eye, Jamie Benn tied the game when his long shot bounced off Talbot and into the net. The tallies set a franchise record for the fastest two goals in a postseason game.
Anton Khudobin made 23 saves for the Stars.
--Field Level Media
Calgary | Dallas | |
Dillon Dube 2 | Points | Jamie Benn 1 |
Dillon Dube 2 | Goals | Jamie Benn 1 |
Mikael Backlund 1 | Assists | Miro Heiskanen 1 |
Dillon Dube 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Cam Talbot .923 | Save Percentage | Anton Khudobin .885 |
Cam Talbot 24 | Saves | Anton Khudobin 23 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Calgary | 26 | 3 | 1-1 | 2-2 | 9 | 27 |
Dallas | 26 | 2 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 7 | 31 |