Flames fell behind by a pair early on, but roared back with 6 unanswered the rest of the way to close out a Panthers double weekend with a 6-2 win on home ice.
About 12 minutes into the evening, Panthers opened the scoring with an Otto Nieminen powerplay goal. At 14:15 Hugo Roy extended the difference to a pair, but 3 straight for Flames before the period was out, had the home team with the advantage at the break. Bradley Lalonde cut the deficit in half 9 seconds after Roy’s marker. On a powerplay at 15:53 Lewis Hook levelled and Peter Crinella 61 seconds from period time nudged Flames in front.
Near the game’s midway mark, a Major penalty to Panthers Mathieu Lemay put Flames powerplay to work for 5 minutes and they managed to get their 4th through Hook at 28:25. The powerplay did the job again on a Panthers late period minor with Brett Ferguson taking the honours 6 seconds from period close.
In the 47th minute, Steven McParland added another making it a 6-2 count that saw out the evening and ended as the final.
Eamon McAdam made 26 saves on 28 shots while Mike Robinson was 43 of 49 for Panthers.
“After not being able to get a break through Saturday against Panthers, it was a real welcome occasion to be able to come from behind and go on to a win,” said Paul Dixon.
“We played a very strong game, and it was great to see the powerplay take advantage on 3 different opportunities to help make a big difference in the outcome.”
“We have a lot of hockey coming up in a short space of time over the holiday period so there is no better way to get set up for those than springboard into them on the back of a huge win.”
