7 different goal scorers touched the back of the mesh as the Flames continue to cling to their league title hopes by pulling within 2 of the league leaders thanks to a 7-3 home ice win over Dundee Stars.
During a mid opening period powerplay, Stars jumped into a lead through former Flame Johan Eriksson, but inside the last 5 minutes Ian McNulty levelled and a late Kyle Locke goal confirmed with a lengthy review by the overhead cameras had Flames in front to close the 1st.
Mike Crocock and Daniel Tedesco goals less than 2 minutes apart early in the 2nd put Flames in a 4-1 driver’s seat, but a late powerplay Elijiah Barriga strike pulled Stars back to a 2 goal deficit to start the 3rd.
Ryan Tait re-stored a 3 goal Flames lead at 44:05. Jonathan McBean got that one back at 47:56 but Sam Marklund on the powerplay in the 49th minute and a late Peter Crinella add on closed out the final result.
“Any win is a big win, but when you have to win to keep pace and keep any chance of a league title still in mind, they don’t get bigger than that,” said Paul Dixon.
“We don’t have the tiebreaker against Belfast, so this is not a 50-50 deal with them but going there on Saturday night now with a head to head showdown makes it a pretty exciting set up to the season end no matter what the outcome.”
“This is why guys want to play to be in big spots and we can’t wait to get to training and do everything we can to try and get a win and take things into the last night of the season to see where it all falls.”
