JOHNNY GAUDREAU SENDS THE FLAMES TO ROUND TWO WITH OT WINNER! FLAMES DEFEAT DALLAS 3-2 IN GAME 7

Calgary Flames 3 – Dallas Stars 2 (OT)

Calgary Wins Series 4-3

Complete Stats

Scoring

1st: DAL 00:40: Benn (Seguin/Suter)

2nd: CGY 1:46- Toffoli (Stone/Kylington), DAL 2:17- Namestnikov (Robertson/Pavelski), CGY 8:44- Tkachuk (Gaudreau/Markstrom)

3rd: None

OT: CGY 15:09- Gaudreau (Lindholm/Tkachuk)

The Flames are moving on! It took three periods of regulation and almost a full OT, but the Flames were able to finally solve Jake Oettinger and their 3-2 victory sends the Flames to a playoff BOA and it sends Dallas home for the season.

Calgary battled all game long, finding themselves down 1-0 a mere 40 seconds into the first period, but they dug deep twice in this game and were able to fend off Dallas. Johnny Gaudreau is probably the most relieved Flames player as he had the game of his life, yet didn’t have a goal to show for his efforts. Gaudreau had 6 SOG in regulation, but Dallas’ Jake Oettinger was having none of it. The Stars netminder stopped him time after time…..until the 63 minute mark of the contest. The Flames applied a ton of pressure in the Dallas end and Gaudreau got a loose puck just above the goal line and fired a wrist shot from an impossible angle , beating Jake Oettinger on the 67th shot of the night by the Flames.

Yes, you read that correctly: 67 SOG. That’s how good Jake Oettinger was tonight. You have to give credit where credit is due: Oettinger was the only reason Dallas was in this series. He stood on his head all series long and he made TONS of big saves in this contest, but he was due to break and it came at the worst possible time for Dallas.

Highlights

Tyler Toffoli ties it 1-1

Matthew Tkachuk ties it 2-2

Johnny Gaudreau wins it in OT

Final Thoughts

-The Flames were down a few bodies tonight and the defence pairing of Nikita Zadorov and Erik Gudbranson were so solid having been moved up to the second pairing. Zadorov led all Flames defenceman in minutes with 28:42.

-While Jake Oettinger will get all the headlines, the guy at the other end of the ice was pretty darn good as well. Jacob Markstrom stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced and made some key saves in the third and in OT to give the Flames a chance to win. AND he had an assist on Matthew Tkachuk’s goal.

-The Flames top line really played well tonight and Calgary needed that. Johnny Gaudreau would finish with two points, Matthew Tkachuk would collect two points and Elias Lindholm would collect an assist as well. That’s the kind of performance the Flames needed from their top players.

-Speaking of Johnny Gaudreau, what a series he had. All the talk about him and the playoffs can be fired into the sun. Gaudreau was Calgary’s best player, finishing with 2 goals and 6 assists.

-Calgary’s prize for winning this series? The Edmonton Oilers. The BOA will now take place in the post season.

Flame Of The Game

Johnny Gaudreau (F): 1 goal, 1 assist, 7 SOG

by Mark Parkinson