Matthew Tkachuk Dumps Corey Perry [Fight]

 

Matthew Tkachuk and Corey Perry dropped the gloves midway through the first period of Game 1 between the Flames and Stars.

Forward Dillon Dube scored a pair of goals and then Rasmus Andersson jumped into the rush and roofed a shot for the winner as the Flames scratched out a 3-2 victory and claimed an early 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven bubble showdown, an NHL Western Conference quarterfinal, against the Dallas Stars.

Cam Talbot stopped 24 shots for the Flames, including a power-play attempt by Joe Pavelski with 10 seconds left in the game.

Dallas already had an extra skater on the ice after sending goalie Anton Khudobin to the bench, and then had a 6-on-4 advantage because of a mistake by captain Mark Giordano. The 36-year-old defenseman, who has spent all 14 of his NHL seasons with the Flames, got a delay of game penalty after knocking the puck out of play when trying to clear it with 49 seconds left.

But Dallas got only one shot on goal in that final stretch, the attempt by Pavelski, whose goal with 31 seconds left pushed the Stars into overtime Sunday when they won their last game in the round robin among the conference's top four seeds.

Game 2 is set for Thursday at 10:30pm Eastern.