Dundee Stars outshine Flames

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The Flames had the road opener, but Stars recovered and went in front for good before the 1st period was over and eventually sent the visitors home on the back of a 6-2 defeat at Dundee.

Calle Ackered stepped into a Jesse Craige feed on the powerplay to put the Flames in front at 10:55, but Matt Marquardt, this one on with an extra man, and Kevin Dufour replies late in the frame sent the home team to break ahead by a single; a lead that would not be relinquished.

Less than 5 minutes into the 2nd, Shawn Boutin extended the home advantage to a pair and they were enjoying a 3-goal cushion over the halfway mark thanks to Marquardt’s 2nd of the contest. John Dunbar pulled one back at 36:42, but Egils Kalns re-stored the original 3 goal spread on a powerplay 31 seconds from period time.

Inside the last 10 minutes, Stars salted it away with a Colton Kroeker strike to close out the evening.

“I doubt we will shock anyone by saying that’s not the way we wanted this evening to go,” confirmed Head Coach Paul Dixon.

“In the first period we had a lead at one point, but it wasn’t a situation where we were particularly dominant. As the game went on, we did have some chances to score, but where they had success on their better chances, we couldn’t get anything to stick and before we knew it we were chasing a large deficit.”

“Dundee definitely deserved to win that one, and we have to find a way to turn this around for Sunday night.”

“We will consider all tonight’s factors and see what we can do about getting a better outcome back on home ice on their return visit.”