Flames score nine in win against Oilers

CALGARY -- Johnny Gaudreau had an NHL career-high five assists, and Matthew Tkachuk had two goals and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 9-5 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.

Mikael Backlund had two goals and an assist, and Elias Lindholm scored twice for the Flames (40-17-8), who are 4-1-1 in their past six. Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves.
"That was a lot of fun," Gaudreau said. "I've been here for a long time, and I think this is the most competitive the Battle of Alberta has been since I've been here. We were excited to get going tonight. Obviously, it was kind of a crazy game, back and forth, power plays, but it was nice to see a lot of guys get rewarded tonight. A lot of guys scored, 'Marky' stuck with it. It was just a really good group effort, I think."
Leon Draisaitl had three goals and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and three assists for the Oilers (36-25-5), who have lost three of four (1-2-1).
"You can't give up nine goals," Draisaitl said. "It doesn't matter against who. You're never going to win a game in the NHL if you give up nine. We can talk all we want. It's not good enough top to bottom. Starts with me, our leadership group. I'm pretty confident we'll be better."

Mikko Koskinen allowed five goals on 12 shots before being replaced in the second period by Mike Smith, who made 22 saves.
"I don't care who was in net tonight," Edmonton forward Zach Hyman said. "It was nine even-strength goals. It doesn't matter. It's not on our goalies. It's on us."
Derick Brassard scored 32 seconds into the game to put Edmonton ahead 1-0. He has two goals in two games since being acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
Lindholm tied it 1-1 at 5:28 when he beat Koskinen with a backhand deke on a breakaway sprung by Tkachuk.
Chris Tanev put Calgary in front 2-1 at 14:23, and Backlund scored 16 seconds later to make it 3-1 when he shot blocker side off a no-look backhand pass from behind the net by Andrew Mangiapane.
Draisaitl cut it to 3-2 at 19:02 when he got behind the defense and shot past Markstrom's blocker after moving from his backhand to forehand. He then tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal 44 seconds into the second period.
Oliver Kylington put the Flames ahead 4-3 at 3:07 after receiving a backhand pass through traffic in the slot from Gaudreau.
Nugent-Hopkins scored on the power play 45 seconds later to tie it 4-4.
Tkachuk restored Calgary to a 5-4 lead at 5:06 when he slid a shot five-hole on Koskinen off a pass from Gaudreau. He scored again at 7:39 to push it to 6-4, this time beating Smith five-hole.
"You go through ups and downs throughout the year," Gaudreau said. "Tonight we had a lot of chances, and they went in for us."

Draisaitl completed the hat trick during a 5-on-3 power play to trim the lead to 6-5 at 9:18 of the second.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," Draisaitl said. "You can't lose 9-whatever, a game like that. Just leave it at that."
Lindholm extended the lead to 7-5 at 2:55 of the third period. His goal came 18 seconds after Markstrom made a sprawling pad save on Evander Kane.
"I thought probably the turning point of the game was Marky's save, and then we got the seventh goal right after that," Tkachuk said. "Lots of guys got rewarded tonight, but I think that play probably should go down as the winning play for us. It was obviously a great play by a great player, and we needed that."
Backlund made it 8-5 at 6:01 with a shot glove side from the high slot, and Dillon Dube shot over Smith's shoulder from in close at 14:23 for the 9-5 final.
"We played bad. We played poorly," Hyman said. "I think it was nine even-strength goals against, right? What did we have, three power-play goals? 9-2 at even strength. Media is probably going to blame our goalies, but you can't blame our goalies. We hung them out to dry. Just all-around poor performance."
NOTES:Draisaitl has scored 47 goals this season, which is tied with Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the NHL lead. ... Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin was playing in his 500th NHL game. He had two assists and was a game-high plus-5. ... McDavid and Draisaitl were each minus-4. The rating was a career worst for McDavid. ... Tkachuk (four goals, seven assists) and Gaudreau (three goals, eight assists) have each scored 11 points during a four-game point streak.