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The Dallas Stars had a two-goal lead heading into the third period, but it wasn’t enough as the Calgary Flames rallied and handed the Stars a 4-3 loss to kick off their three-game home stand Sunday night.
The Stars were sluggish and sloppy in the first period. They took three penalties, not including a fighting major to Ryan Garbutt, and they were outshot 8-4. Calgary’s Mike Cammalleri opened the scoring with a power play goal from a tough angle that bounced off of Richard Bachman and into the net with 8:11 left in the first period.
The Stars seemed to flip a switch in the intermission and they had arguably their best period of the season. Less than two minutes into the second period, Cody Eakin threw the puck on net from near the blue line and Antoine Roussel tipped it in as he stood on the edge of the crease. Less than a minute later Reilly Smith backhanded a rebound top shelf past Calgary goalie Joey Macdonald.
With 4:37 left in the period, Stephane Robidas and Garbutt skated into the Calgary zone. Garbutt made a drop pass for Robidas as they entered the zone. Robidas took the shot from the wing and Macdonald stopped it, but Garbutt put in the rebound as he crashed the net.
The Stars outshot the Flames 22-12 in the period and headed into the third with a 3-1 lead.
Bachman started in goal for the Stars since Kari Lehtonen will be out at least a week with a lower body injury. He struggled in net, stopping 22 shots, but he didn’t get much help from his teammates in the third period. Calgary’s three goals in the final period came on defensive lapses and resulted in three players scoring their first goals of the season.
Only 1:39 into the third period, the Flames began their comeback when Roman Horak was left wide open in front of the net off a rebound. Forty-five seconds later, Matt Stajan netted a centering feed from Lee Stempniak to tie the game. Steve Begin scored the game-winning goal 10:30 into the third period, when Bachman lost sight of a shot from the point after it hit the traffic in front of the net. Begin fought to get his stick free from Cody Eakin and rifled it past Bachman.
The Stars three-game home stand continues Thursday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
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