The Calgary Flames Win Tonight’s Battle of Alberta 3-1

Calgary Flames 3 – Edmonton Oilers 1

Preview

Scoring

Calgary Flames

1st: 6:04 – Lindholm (16) (Tkachuk, Gaudreau)

2nd: 7:07 – Lindholm (17) (Andersson, Tkachuk)

3rd: 12:08 – Dube (9) (Lucic, Andersson)

Edmonton Oilers

1st: 13:28 – Neal (4) (Russell, Archibald)

2nd: None

3rd: None

Complete Stats

Recap

The Calgary Flames win the 9th game of the 10 game series versus the Edmonton Oilers — the Battle of Alberta series is now 5-4 in favour of the Oilers.

Elias Lindholm would put the Flames on the scoreboard first — Matthew Tkachuk battling behind the net gets the puck to Lindholm for the one-timer.

James Neal would shoot stick side on Markstrom and tie the game 1-1 — scoring his 4th goal, he now has 7 points in his 22 games played this season, with 3 of the points in games versus the Flames.

The second period would soon turn into 4-on-4, and 4-on-3 hockey as both teams take turns in the hot box — four penalties handed out over two minutes. Flames’ Brett Ritchie takes a bad interference penalty — when he should’ve been in position to shoot the puck, which instead sails past him while he tangles himself with Darnell Nurse.

Oilers’ Tyson Barrie would head to the penalty box next, and the 4-on-4 would turn into 4-on-3 play for the Oilers, as Flames’ Derek Ryan takes a seat in the hotbox next to Ritchie for 20 seconds. The teams would play 4-on-4 for another minute until Oilers’ Nugent-Hopkins heads off on an Oilers penalty — the Flames getting the man advantage this time in 4-on-3 play for about a minute. No power play goals were scored by either team during these two minutes of back and forth penalties.

The Flames go ahead goal came after Lindholm won the face-off in the Oilers zone — Rasmus Andersson with a quick release slap shot from the blue line gets deflected in by Lindholm.

The Flames playing short-handed again at the end of the 2nd — start a quick attack and Oilers’ Mike Smith makes a huge glove save for his team as Backlund and Lindholm rush in on a 2-on-1 with 13 seconds left in the 2nd.

The second period would end in a 2-1 score with the Flames up. The Oilers with a little over a minute left in their power play to the start the third period — Dillion Dube in the hotbox for goaltender interference.

It would be Dube who would pot the insurance goal for the Flames — pouncing on a rebound after a shot by Milan Lucic gets past Mike Smith but not over the goal line — Oilers’ Draisaitl trailing behind Dube as the Flames make it 3-1 in their win over Edmonton in tonight’s Battle of Alberta.

Final Thoughts

Edmonton Oilers superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are held off the point sheet with big hits and big saves by Flames’ Nikita Nesterov and Jacob Markstrom respectively.

Nesterov and Ritchie with 5 hits each — the Flames with 35 hits total tonight, playing a physical game.

It was a battle of the goaltenders with both Markstrom and Smith making highlight reel saves. Markstrom stopping Neal on a break away in the second period, and making a massive no stick save in the third period to keep the Flames afloat.

The final shots on goal were 30 CGY – 31 EDM.

Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau and Oilers’ Kailer Yamamoto had big scoring chances, with both of them missing the net.

Flame of the Game

Elias Lindholm (F): Lindholm gets the game winner and adds to his points versus the Oilers — 10 points in 9 games.

Next Game

Calgary Flames @ Edmonton Oilers – Saturday, May 1st at 8pm MT.

by Renu Sahota