Flames took a late 3rd period lead, but an immediate Dundee Stars reply levelled and forced overtime then eventually a long penalty round with only a goal each before Drydn Dow bagged the winner in sudden death shots as the Stars returned home with a 4-3 win leaving Spectrum’s men with just a single point from the evening.
84 seconds in, Peter Crinella set Flames to a lead and not long after that Kyle Locke had them enjoying a 2 goal difference. Late in the frame, however, back to back Flames penalties proved costly as the Stars took advantage of the 2nd one by cutting their deficit before the break thanks to a Joshua Brittain goal at 18:25.
Almost at the halfway mark of the game, Stars pulled fully even off the stick of Ryan Valentini and the club’s skated to the 3rd at 2 each, albeit with Flames beginning the final frame with most of a powerplay still on the clock.
That powerplay melted away as did a chunk of the period with no movement on the score until a little over 7 minutes out when Ben O’Connor put Flames into a 3-2 lead but it was less than a minute later that Dundee had the game even again at 3 each thanks to Tommy Parrottino’s strike that forced tiebreaking measures.
A late Stars penalty put Flames to the 4 on 3 powerplay to start overtime. The extra man made no difference on the scoreboard and the remainder of the 3 on 3 didn’t solve things either so penalties were needed where Dow decided the evening after Steven McParland and Jake Elmer traded goals in the opening shooting round.
“That was certainly a winnable game, so not getting both points out of that one is a difficult way to start a new week,” admitted Paul Dixon.
“We had a lot of the play, a good number of shots and some very good looks to put the game away at different times, but goaltending was good at both ends right through to penalties. We just couldn’t find the one to make the difference at any point along the way from regulation to overtime or on the closing shots.”
“Dundee is a good club and they played well so I guess it is just one where take the point we got and start to look ahead to Wednesday night for a chance to redeem ourselves on home ice against Glasgow Clan.”
