On the road, Flames blew a late 2 goal lead, but a Peter Crinella winner in overtime ensured a pair of goals by Brett Ferguson and singles by Ryan Hughes and Ryan Tait would sum up a 5-4 win; the Flames first success this season against Dundee Stars.
It took just 11 seconds for the scoring to commence with Flames taking the early lead through Ferguson, but Jake Elmer levelled before the period was out when he scored a little over 2 minutes from break.
Flames jumped on Stars early again in middle frame, with Ferguson’s 2nd of the contest 43 seconds after re-start. It was only another 27 seconds before Hughes had them up 3-1, but the home team got one back in the 33rd minute off the stick of Tommy Parrottino to start the 3rd just a goal adrift.
Seconds after killing a penalty in the back half of the final set, Tait extended the visitors advantage to a pair. However, Brent Beaudoin cut the difference at 56:44 and Brendan Harms forced overtime with the comeback completer with their own net empty and only 54 seconds to play to secure their table point before Crinella’s marker less than 2 minutes into a 4th period tipped the additional point to the Flames side of the ledger.
Taz Burman made 27 saves on 31 shots against Lucas Brine for Stars who was 25 for 30.
“That certainly was not the smoothest win we have had all season,” admitted Head Coach Paul Dixon.
“The goal is 2 points and we are happy we achieved that, but you don’t want to make it so hard on yourself like we did in the last 5 minutes to be in overtime in a game we should have been able to lock down once we were up a couple late.”
“Dundee has a very talented team, and they can score which they showed very clearly tonight in bringing themselves back in it.”
“With the Cup semi final on Wednesday looming, we just want to be a bit tighter in our end because we can’t afford to give up much if we want to move to the Trophy game.”
“We got the win though against a team we had not yet beaten this season so sometimes you have to see the bigger picture and congratulate guys for not letting the late punch in the face completely derail their evening.”
