Flames got a table point, but lost the handle on a 4-1 lead, eventually falling 5-4 on penalties to the visiting Dundee Stars.
Charlie Dodero kicked off the scoring in the 4th minute. At 14:48 Mike Crocock doubled the lead, but a last minute Kameron Keilly reply cut Stars deficit in half at the first break.
Near the midway point Charlie Curti made his debut with the 3-1 marker. After the game resumed following an extensive delay assessing an injury to Jake Coughler, Flames extended the difference through Matt Alvaro, but a late Domenico Alberga goal began the full reply.
Early in the last set, Zachary Tsekos pulled Stars within a single and time wound down to a little over 3 minutes left, Stars squared it on a powerplay to force overtime thank to an Alex Tonge strike at 58:23.
Seconds into overtime, a trip on Ryan Tait put Flames to a 4 on 3 manpower advantage but they couldn’t connect and onto penalties they went where Jake Elmer, Keanu Yamamoto and Alberga converted 3 of their 4 while Lewis Hooke, Daniel Tedesco and Jack Jacome were shutout in reply.
Eamon McAdam made 27 saves on 31 shots while Stars' Jarrett Fiske was 38 for 42.
“It was a tough night on many levels,” admitted Paul Dixon.
“First and foremost it was tough to see Jake go down like that, but he was in good spirits in the end and we will wait on getting a better look at the injury, get the rehab plan in place, and then plan a timeline for his return.”
“In terms of the result, the injury situation sort of puts everything into perspective, but still we are obviously very disappointed with the turn of events where a big lead did not end up with a win.”
“We are certainly good enough to close out a game like that and there really is no excuse for not doing so. We will review the game and get back to the drawing board at training and remember what we did well but also work on the things that went into what eventually was the final result.”
