DALLAS – First he served up a dinner for kings, feeding all his teammates a Thanksgiving to remember at his in-laws’ palatial home in nearby Plano.
Then he played host to the type of goal a young Texan probably wouldn’t even dream of as a child – his first NHL snipe in the Lone Star State. As country music blared in the dressing room to celebrate another dramatic comeback win for the Flames, Blake Coleman topped it all off with a Stetson his wife gave him for his birthday, which was a day earlier.
“My new baby,” smiled the rugged forward, who could’ve been mistaken for the Marlboro Man. “Honestly, I’m just too lazy. I don’t want to do my hair. And so, my wife was kind enough to pick this one up this morning and drive it to me for the game.
“Now she’s 1 and 0, so she might get another test tomorrow.”
It’s then his Flames will get the second in a string of five stiff tests when they take on Colorado in Denver — quite the way to wrap up a four-game roadie.
They won’t have much time to savour a stirring turnaround against the division-leading Stars, who led 1-0 73 seconds in, 2-1 after the first and 4-2 midway through the second before the Flames scored five straight to win 7-4.
A heck of a start for a show-me-stretch that will see the Flames play their next four games against the West’s best.
“We know the road ahead is gonna be a great challenge for us, but it seems in a weird way we seem to raise our game for the best competition,” said Coleman, whose goal tied the game 4-4 early in the third period, setting off a trio by Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund and Nazem Kadri.
“It’s gonna be a good measuring stick and most importantly, we got one tomorrow, really quick turnaround and it could be a late night. So this is going to be a game that guys are gonna really have to learn how to fight through the fatigue, because these are still two really big points to get us back to .500.”
That was the goal two nights earlier in Nashville where the Flames had one of their only setbacks in a stretch that now has them rolling at 6-2-2. They’ve done it by committee and with a resilience to be admired.
Last year the Flames’ first third-period comeback win was Game 76, and they only had two such victories all season. This year they have three already.
“Being down is not too uncomfortable for us – we’ve been pretty resilient, coming from behind the last few weeks,” said Connor Zary, who returned to the lineup after missing one game to set up Backlund with a saucer pass for the ages.
“Right from the end of the third period we felt if we just stayed with it it would be our kind of game.
“We talked about it this morning, we’ve got a good test with our schedule ahead and we responded by rolling four lines and had contributions from all over the lineup.”
Every line scored, including the fourth unit, which got finishes from A.J. Greer and Adam Ruzicka. Yegor Sharangovich had his best game as a Flame, scoring once, adding two assists and firing a game-high five shots on goal to spearhead the best effort his line with Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane have had as a unit.
“We stuck with it and our third period was our best one,” said coach Ryan Huska. “It’s like we’ve talked about all year, there’s been a resolve to go out and play well and be a difference-maker, and I thought we had different contributions from different lines here tonight too, which is important.”
It wasn’t the start Jacob Markstrom wanted, allowing the first shot on goal and allowing a few other longer shots to beat him, which could easily have deflated him and the visitors. Instead, his play from the midpoint on mirrored that of the crew in front, as they all battled back to prove their misstep in Nashville was an anomaly.
“Another comeback speaks to the way our group feels about ourselves right now,” said Coleman, whose sixth of the season leads the team.
“It’s just a quiet confidence.
“Guys are making plays, and it’s up and down the lineup – we’re not relying on one guy to do the job.
“We know that’s our recipe and we’re sticking with it.”
Despite scoring six of their seven goals against one of the league’s best netminders (Jake Oettinger) the club failed to score a power-play goal for the eighth time in nine outings.
“We’re sneaking out of here with two points and the win,” beamed Coleman, whose club has now won six in a row in Dallas.
“We’re finding ways to put points on the board, and that’s important.”