Joe Pavelski Pots Two, as the Stars Upset Flames for Second Straight Win; Series 2-1 Stars
This series has been the closest one of the Playoffs oddly enough. While most people expected Darryl Sutter's Flames to make light work of the Stars, the latter has made life difficult.
Rick Bowness' regular season story has been one of underwhelming, but good enough results. While he & the Stars have a recipe that simply gets it done in the playoffs. Stringent defense, with excellent goaltending by Jake Oettinger, the Stars find themselves up 2-1 on the heavily favored Flames.
Here's the full game recap:
The Flames will need to figure their woes out & quick. Once again, they find themselves in a hole to the Dallas Stars with their top performers doing anything but performing. While the trio of Lindholm, Gaudreau, & Tkachuk connected tonight, the pressure is on that line to dominate the middling Stars, as a point-a-game simply isn't enough. That said, the depth of the Flames could up their play as well.
The main story, however, isn't necessarily what the Flamers are failing to do. Rather, what the Stars have successfully done. They've completely locked down the middle of the ice, forcing the Flames to either play from the perimeter or the neutral zone. Hardly ideal. Other than that, they've got this guy Jake Oettinger who's been lights out so far:
Not too shabby. The Stars lead 2-1, Game 4 is in Dallas Monday night.
Will the Flames regain momentum before returning home? Or will Otter continue to stifle the frustrated Flames?
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Patrick Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Lukas Reichel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Travis Konecny | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Anze Kopitar | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Quinton Byfield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Noah Cates | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Adrian Kempe | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Matvei Michkov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Martin Pospisil | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kevin Rooney | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Igor Sharangovich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bobby Brink | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kevin Fiala | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tyson Foerster | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Justin Kirkland | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||