Calgary and Dallas wasted no time getting acquainted in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The second-seeded Flames and seventh-seeded Stars faced off in Game 1 of their first-round matchup in Calgary on Tuesday, and fists were flying before the first period ended.
The initial melee started with a punishing hit by Calgary forward Matthew Tkachuk on Dallas defenseman John Klingberg behind the Stars’ net as the opening frame came to a close. That drew Klingberg’s teammate, Michael Raffl, over to challenge Tkachuk, and the two exchanged several blows in a long fight.
Both Tkachuk and Raffl earned fighting majors for their actions, and Raffl received an additional penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Meanwhile, Klingberg and Flames blueliner Rasmus Andersson started another fight of their own while Tkachuk and Raffl were going at it. Per NHL rules, Klingberg and Andersson each received a game misconduct penalty — an automatic ejection — for engaging in a separate fight after the original altercation had begun.
“He’s acting a little tougher than he is,” Klingberg said when asked about Andersson hitting him. “We’re going to go after him.”
It made for quite a spirited opening to the series by leaving both sides without a key member of their blue line for much of the night.
Klingberg had 47 points in 74 regular-season games for Dallas and carried the third-most minutes on the team at 22:13 per game. Andersson was the Flames’ leader in ice time at 22:40 per game, while adding 50 points in 82 games.
Calgary took Game 1 in a 1-0 shutout, with the contest’s lone score coming on a power-play goal by Elias Lindholm early in the first period. Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped all 16 shots he faced.
“Even warm-up was fun, and I got goose bumps,” Lindholm said. “The crowd was into it right away, and obviously, we had some good energy right away.
“I thought the first 10 or 15 minutes we played real well, and the second and third, too many penalties.”
Without Klingberg, their power-play quarterback, the Stars went 0-for-5 with a man advantage.
Stars coach Rick Bowness said his team “bent a little but didn’t break” over the first half of the opening period.
“I thought they were going to run us out of the rink, and they didn’t,” Bowness said. “We put up a good fight.
“It’s clear our power play has to get clicking. That was a big issue for us. We need more pucks on the net. But the compete was there, the work ethic, everything was good.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com