Johnny Gaudreau scored a penalty-shot goal and contributed an assist as the visiting Calgary Flames evened their first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Dallas Stars with a 4-1 victory on Monday in Game 4.
Rasmus Andersson, Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for the win.
Tyler Seguin replied with a late goal for the Stars, who received a 50-save performance from Jake Oettinger. The Dallas goalie surrendered as many goals as he had in the first three games, but through four playoff outings this year, he has stopped 143 of 149 shots.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven series will be played Wednesday in Calgary.
The Flames set a franchise record for shots on goal in a non-overtime playoff game with 54. They had 19 in a dominant first period but didn’t open the scoring until just past the game’s midway point.
With Calgary on a five-on-three power play, Andersson played catch with Matthew Tkachuk until he received the pass where he wanted it and unloaded a top-corner one-timer from the top of the right circle. It was Calgary’s 31st shot of the game.
Gaudreau doubled the lead with a penalty-shot goal 7:47 into the third period, a chance awarded after John Klingberg hooked his hands while on a breakaway. Gaudreau faked a shot and then tucked home a deke for his first goal of the series.
It was the second penalty-shot goal in Flames playoff history, with an Al MacInnis tally in 1990 the other. Gaudreau had a penalty-shot chance in the 2019 playoffs but didn’t convert.
Lindholm made it a 3-0 game by burying his team’s 50th shot of the game from the slot at 11:53 of the third. It was his third of the playoffs.
Seguin scored a power-play goal with 4:57 remaining, which snapped his 18-game playoff goal drought, but Backlund’s empty-net goal with 21.9 seconds left sealed the game.
–Field Level Media
