Sam Marklund’s 2nd of the game, that one less than 2 minutes into overtime, lifted the Flames to a 4-3 home win over Nottingham Panthers.
After a delay to replace some shattered plexi about halfway through the opening frame, Ryan Tait got Flames on the board seconds after resumption, but Panthers squared it at 14:05 thanks to a Jordan Kelsall strike.
Marklund set Flames to another lead at 27:57, but the advantage was short lived as a result of Brett Welychka’s powerplay goal less than 30 seconds later. Kyle Locke nudged Flames ahead yet again in the 33rd minute, but true to pattern, and less than 4 minutes from period time, Jeremy Welsh had the teams knotted at 3 each to begin the 3rd.
About 7 minutes into the final set, Panthers had a great opportunity for their first lead, but David Levin bounced his penalty shot off the iron and it remained level. Inside the back 5 minutes Flames were awarded their first powerplay opportunity of the contest but failure to convert made overtime the most likely outcome and indeed extra time was needed to decide the result where Marklund sealed it.
Flames netminder Taz Burman turned aside 28 of 31 shots while Jack Berry for Panthers stopped 41 of 45.
“I thought we were the more dominant team for the first couple of periods, but when it was tied in that 3rd, Panthers really pushed back and they could have won it at that point,” said Paul Dixon.
“They had some really good chances in the 3rd, but we were able to hold the line long enough to at least get the point and then fortunately went on to win it.”
“We missed a few high grade chances ourselves at different points, and you don’t always get things to go your way so you do have to be able to weather some trouble spots like we did in the 3rd and credit to the guys for sticking with it long enough to get the break in overtime to secure a win.”
