The Calgary Flames’ Mikael Backlund was the home-team hero on Tuesday night scoring in overtime to give his team the edge over the Anaheim Ducks 4-3.
The Flames extended their winning streak at home in the Dome in this year’s playoffs to 4-0 with the win.
"We're still fighting an uphill battle," said Joe Colborne. "The way we've been playing at home, the way we have the support of our fans right now, we're feeling confident we can take care of business here and go try and figure things out in Anaheim."
The Flames came out on the ice in front of a sold-out crowd determined to turn up the heat on the Ducks in Game 3.
Calgary opened up the scoring in the first on a goal from Brandon Bollig, from Raymond and Granlund at 2:07.
The Ducks tied it up less than five minutes later on a shot from Patrick Maroon that beat Karri Ramo before he could slide across and close the gap and it was 1-1.
Anaheim pulled ahead at 14:10 with a goal from Corey Perry making it 2-1 after one.
Joe Colborne netted a beautiful short-handed goal just over four minutes into the second on a turnover in the Flames zone by the Ducks and it was 2-2.
The Ducks didn’t wait long to answer back and Matt Belesky scored at 8:20 to put Anaheim ahead once again, 3-2.
Sam Bennett thought he had the equalizer for Calgary at the thirteen minute mark of the third when his shot from in close appeared to slide under Frederik Andersen’s pad and over the goal-line.
Officials denied the goal but Johnny Gaudreau evened up the score with 19 seconds remaining in regulation walking in with the puck from the wing and the two teams were headed to overtime.
The Flames pulled goalie Karri Ramo for an extra attacker on a delayed Anaheim penalty and Backlund threaded a shot from the blue-line through traffic to beat Andersen at 4:24 of overtime.
The Flames won the game 4-3 and Backlund’s goal in the extra frame put his team back into the second-round Western Conference playoff series 2-1.
"I thought for a second about doing a Theo Fleury," said Backland, in reference to the former Flame's jubilant pinballing the length of the ice back in 1991. "He's a legend and I'm not really quite there. I didn't know what to do."
"It was tough to pick up with all the bodies in front," Andersen said. "It went in on my right side. It was a good shot through traffic."
"We came here to at least steal one and we've got a big task ahead of us in Game 4," said the Ducks’ Getzlaf. "I didn't think we played our best game tonight. We made some errors that are uncharacteristic, but it's bound to happen. You're in the playoffs. It's going to happen throughout the run."
The best-of-seven series returns to the Saddledome on Friday for Game 4 followed by Sunday's Game 5 in Anaheim, Calif.
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(With files from TSN.ca)
