TOUGH ONE

It was a heckuva Battle of Alberta.
Tons of hits, a couple fights, and lots of back-and-forth action, with the Flames taking 1-0 and 2-1 leads but falling 3-2 to the Oilers Saturday night in Edmonton.

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Jacob Markstrom made his first start after returning from injury and made 30 stops in the loss.
Mike Smith had a big night for the Oilers - especially early - turning aside 34 of the shots he faced.
Johnny Gaudreau and Noah Hanifin scored for Calgary, but Oilers captain Connor McDavid scored with 3:45 left to give Edmonton the win.
New head coach Darryl Sutter watched the game from his home in Viking, Alta., as he remains in COVID protocol, while assistant coach Ryan Huska served as the bench boss for Calgary in the contest.
The Flames had some serious get-up-and-go to the start the game, throwing their bodies around, setting a quick tempo, and pelting Smith with pucks in the opening 20 minutes.
Early in the frame, Andrew Mangiapane got a crack at Smith in tight but was denied, and later Sean Monahan skated the puck into the zone and wired a shot that was also stopped.
Matthew Tkachuk dished out the biggest hit of the period early, crushing Dominik Kahun in the corner.
The Flames led 11-1 in shots just past the midway point of the frame, Smith making another crucial stop on Juuso Valimaki's shot as he pinched in from the point.
While Markstrom didn't see much rubber early - just 10 shots in the opening 20 - he was sharp when he had to be.
He absolutely robbed Tyson Barrie by kicking out his right pad to deny a tip attempt on the doorstep at full speed by the Oilers defenceman off a cross-ice pass from Kailer Yamamoto.
Gaudreau opened the scoring on the powerplay with his 10th of the season when he stepped into a one-timer slapshot from the right faceoff circle off a feed from Elias Lindholm. Monahan got the other assist with a great play up high to keep the puck in the zone and get it to Lindholm.

The first fight of the night came courtesy of Milan Lucic and Darnell Nurse, who dropped the mitts with 4:30 left to play.

Just 1:22 seconds later, Tkachuk and former Flame James Neal had a go, a longer tussle that went the length of the Flames bench as they threw punches and jostled.
Smith, who turned aside 20 attempts by the Flames in the first, made a tough late blocker stop on a shot by Mikael Backlund that went off the skate of Oilers blueliner Kris Russell's skate and changed direction to keep the homeside trailing by just one after the opening frame.
The Oilers got their first powerplay 2:35 into the second period, Brett Ritchie sent off for interference on Jujhar Khaira.
Markstrom made two massive saves on the three shots Edmonton got on the man-up, one on a tip in tight from Leon Draisaitl and then another coming across his crease to deny a one-timer slapper from Draisaitl in almost the exact same spot Gaudreau scored from.
Chris Tanev then added to the Flames hit count with a massive open-ice crunch on Kyle Turris just as the Oilers forward skated over the Calgary blueline, sending him crashing to the ice.
An ongoing game-long battle between Mangiapane and Draisaitl led to Calgary's second PP when the Edmonton forward went off for a cross-check at 6:48. The Flames managed three shots with excellent puck movement but Smith again stood tall.
Jesse Puljujarvi tied the game up with 2:59 left in the middle stanza, cashing in the rebound of a Russell point shot that was almost blocked by Lindholm, just squeeking through his legs on the way to the net. McDavid got the other assist, breaking out of a three-game pointless drought for the league's top scorer.
Smith made another big stop with less than a minute left off on a 3-on-2 Calgary rush, Mangiapane taking a pass from Lucic and firing a off-speed wrister that the Edmonton 'tender got a piece of with his glove to hold onto against his body.
Hanifin scored his first of the season - and first against the Oilers - 1:42 into the third, following an absolutely monster shift by the Flames. Tkachuk and Dillon Dube did the yeoman's work behind the net as they kept the pressure on, Hanifin eventually beating Smith five-hole, Lindholm and Dube getting the assists.

Yamamoto tied it back up at 6:07, McDavid feeding Draisaitl as he skated through the slot and made a no-look trailing pass that Yamamoto fired as Markstrom dived back across the net, the puck going off the stick of Backlund and in.
The two teams exchanged some Grade-A chances after that, with Backlund and Hanifin both getting good cracks on the same shift later in the third.
McDavid then tallied at 16:15 far-side off the post and in to round out the scoring.

ICE CHIPS:

Walter Gretzky was honoured with a moment of silence prior to the game. The Great One's dad passed away on Thursday ... No. 17 Milan Lucic is now 17 games away from the coveted 1,000 games played milestone ... The Stockton Heat extended their winning streak yesterday with a late come-from-behind victory in Toronto over the Marlies.
Click to read about the win
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THE LINEUP:

*To start the game
Lines
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Josh Leivo
Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Dillon Dube
Milan Lucic - Mikael Backlund - Andrew Mangiapane
Joakim Nordstrom - Derek Ryan - Brett Ritchie
Pairings:
Mark Giordano - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - Chris Tanev
Juuso Valimaki - Nikita Nesterov
Goaltenders:
Jacob Markstrom - starter
David Rittich

UP NEXT:

The Flames host the Ottawa Senators Sunday at 7:30 p.m. for their fifth tilt against one another in Calgary's last six games. Then it's a three-day stretch with no games before playing the Montreal Canadiens in two tilts at the Scotiabank Saddledome on March 11 & 13.