Calgary looks to take a lead on Dallas at home
Whoever wins Wednesday night's clash between the Flames and Stars will take a three games to two lead in the series.
Forward Milan Lucic says it will be a key for his team to get off to a fast start.
"It's going to be big here tonight with it being a tied series and it's growing to be a lot of fun with the C of Red being as excited as they're going to be," he said Wednesday.
Part of that excitement draw from the animosity that's built up during the first-round series.
At the start of Game 4, Lucic skated into the circle to face off against Stars' forward Jamie Benn.
The Stars captain had been chirping at Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk throughout the series and was also fined for high-sticking Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane.
It appeared Lucic had had enough of Benn and it looked like he gave him a message prior to the draw.
Lucic claims it wasn't about that at all.
"I lost the draw and I was mad that I lost the draw and that was it," he said.
MOST COMPLETE GAME OF THE SERIES
While the 33-year-old shrugged off the idea, it sure didn't look that innocent to a lot of people watching the broadcast. It looked like an invitation to scrap and if that was the case Benn turned it down.
Even though there wasn't a fight, a message was sent and the Flames would go on to play their best game of the series according to forward Trevor Lewis.
"That was probably our most complete game of the series," Lewis said.
"We've been stressing that to play a full 60 (minutes) or however long it takes. You know we've just got to come out with that same intensity and keep it going throughout the whole game."
NOT TIPPING HIS HAND
In Game 4, Flames' head coach Darryl Sutter switched things up by using 11 forwards and seven defencemen. He said he did it because he thought his defence was looking tired.
Sutter says as far as at the lineup goes for Game 5, you'll just have to wait and see.
"You know unless the visiting team wants to go first and you ask them their question and they answer it honestly, then why would I answer it," Sutter said.
"If we could get Rick (Bowness, the Stars' head coach) up here we'll talk about our standing lineups just so it's media friendly. Let's go," he laughed.
Tonight's start time in Calgary is a little different than in previous games – puck drop is a little after 7:30 p.m.
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