Gaudreau scores on penalty shot as Flames down Stars to even series

Johnny Gaudreau scored on a penalty shot for the Calgary Flames in Monday's 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars to even up their playoff series at two wins apiece.

Elias Lindholm and Rasmus Andersson also scored and Mikael Backlund added an empty-net goal for Calgary, which generated three unanswered goals before Dallas countered in the third period.

Tyler Seguin scored the Stars' lone goal. Goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 50 shots in the loss.

The best-of-seven series returns to Calgary for Wednesday's Game 5 at the Saddledome, where the Flames went 25-9-7 in the regular season.

Calgary (50-21-11) topped the Pacific Division and ranked sixth in the NHL in the regular season. The No. 15 Stars (46-30-6) entered the post-season as the first wild card in the Western Conference.

WATCH l Gaudreau's penalty shot lifts Flames over Stars:

The Flames won 1-0 and lost 2-0 at the Saddledome before the Stars doubled Calgary 4-2 in Game 3 at American Airlines Center.

When a best-of-seven series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 holds an all-time series record of 219-58 (. 791), according to NHL statisticians.

After nearly 16 minutes of four-on-four over the second and third games of the series, more even-strength hockey was played in Game 4.

That favoured Calgary, ranked sixth in the NHL in even-strength goals. Lindholm produced just the Flames' third of that type in the series at 11:53 of the third period.

Dallas replied with a power-play goal to cut the deficit. Seguin's wrist shot off the rush beat Markstrom far side at 15:03.

After he was hooked by Stars defenceman John Klingberg on a breakaway, Gaudreau stretched Oettinger out with a backhand and scored five-hole on his penalty shot at 7:47 of the third period.

The Flames generated more