Young Stars in Penticton: Calgary Flames Fall Short to Edmonton Oilers in OT

The Flames were defeated 4-3 in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers in the “Junior Battle of Alberta in BC”. Despite peppering Oilers goaltender Dylan Wells with 41 shots, the team fell just short. Many Flames players had solid performances, but they just could not bury enough goals.

The Opening Line up

Tkachuk-Jankowski-Carroll

Mangiapane-Lomberg-Tuulola

Pollock-Dube-Phillips

Burke-Aagarrd-Smith

Culkin-Andersson

Kylington-Dyukov

Falkovsky-Morisson

Tyler Parsons (for the first half)

Mason McDonald (the second half)

Oiler prospect of note, 4th overall pick Jesse Puljuarvi, was missing from the opposition’s line up. It is too bad we did not get to see what Tkachuk would have tried with him.

First Period

Not particularly surprisingly, the game opened up with some big hits. Matthew Phillips was rocked in the opening minutes, but bounced right back up. Shortly after, Hunter Smith crushed Matthew Benning (nephew of every Flames fan’s favourite GM, Jim Benning).

The Flames opened the scoring on a very nice play by the top line. Tkachuk cycled the puck down low to Jankowski, who fired a beautiful, no-look backhand pass to Auston Carroll in the slot, whose shot was stopped but Tkachuk was on the doorstep to score his first goal of the tournament. 1-0 Flames.

The Oilers tied it up late in the period, after a miscue by 2016 2^nd round pick Tyler Parsons turned the puck over behind his net and could not locate the puck in the ensuing scramble.

The score was 1-1 after one, with the Flames leading in shots 12-9.

Second Period

The second period started off a little slow, with the only major event being Danish tryout forward Mikkel Aagard deflected a Hunter Smith shot off the crossbar. Things were about to heat up though.

Oliver Kylington got smoked with a clean hit in the offensive zone, leading to the Oilers coming back the other way on an odd man rush with the Flames in scramble mode. Tyler Parsons made an absolutely phenomenal save to keep the puck out, but Matthew Tkachuk received a 4-minute penalty for spearing the Oiler forward that had hit Kylington. Kylington was slow to get to the bench and headed off to the dressing room to catch his breath and perhaps visit the quiet room (he returned a few minutes later and was skating as fast as ever).

While killing off Tkachuk’s penalty, Auston Carroll hit an Oiler from behind with a fairly dangerous looking hit, but received just a 2 minute minor. The Flames successfully killed the almost full 2-minute 5-on-3 powerplay.

Tyler Parsons was switched out of the game halfway through for Mason McDonald. Other than his very unfortunate miscue behind the net, he had a solid outing. He stopped 20 of 21 shots, made some big saves and moved very well in the net. He is a prospect for down the road, but he looked very good, has a great pedigree and will be someone to keep an eye on in the years to come.

Mason McDonald came in and immediately let in a terrible goal from a bad angle, up high, on the first shot he faced. Not a good start for a guy who has been taking some heat since being drafted 34^th overall in 2014.

Meanwhile, Matt Tkachuk continued to draw the ire of many Oilers. Basically, every other team and their fans are going to hate him, while we are going to love watching him. While the Flames were on the PP he was crosschecked to make it a 5-on-3. After this penalty expired, he was high-sticked, making it a 5-on-3 again. A few minutes alter he got hit up high, leading to another Oiler penalty. This time, Hunter Smith took exception and there was a pretty spirited fight that you could probably call a draw.

The score was 2-1 Oilers after 2, shots were 23-23.

Third Period

The Oilers went up ahead 3-1, after McDonald left in another soft goal, this time a wrister from the top of the circle found a way past him. There was no traffic, you could tell he was not too pleased with himself after. That made it 2 goals on 5 shots against him.

While it looked like the Flames might go out quietly, the tides suddenly shifted. Rasmus Andersson laid out the Oiler player, Butler, at the blueline and second later, Mikkel Aagard fired a wrister from near the blueline top corner past the Oiler goaltender, Dylan Wells. With the Flames within 1, Brayden Burke sniped a goal minutes later, taking a Hunter Smith pass on a 3-on-1.

The Flames dominated the third period but could not pull ahead, so it was off to OT.

Overtime

The Flames opened overtime with Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane and Oliver Kylington. A trio of extremely fast players led to a couple quality scoring chances for the Flames, before the puck ended up going the other way for an Oilers breakaway, with Jaedon Descheneau burying the puck past Mason McDonald.

The Flames 3 Stars

1.    Matthew Tkachuk: He was so involved in the game. He scored a goal, took a bad penalty but drew many others, skated well and was the player with the most significant presence in the game by far. The Oilers’ players hated him, he should be public enemy number one in Edmonton for awhile.

2.    Tyler Parsons: He only played half a game and had a brutal miscue, but Parsons stood on his head for periods of the second period when the Flames were struggling. He made some big saves and stood tall on the PK. A good solid first outing as a Flame

3.    Mark Jankowski: Janko had a strong game. A lot of the things he does are very quiet on the ice, but he makes many smart plays and seems to often be in the right place. He made many good passes, you can tell he has great hockey IQ and the pass he made to Carroll that led to the first goal was a thing of beauty.

Honourable Mentions: Mikkel Aagard, Hunter Smith

Next Up

The Flames are now 1-0-1 at Penticton. They will play the Canucks on Monday afternoon. The game will be streamed live on the Calgary Flames website and a write up will be available for you here following the game. 

by samwell9