Crafty. Shifty. Speedy. Words that the Oilers used to describe the NHL's second leading scorer as Gaudreau drew first blood with the game's opening goal. 'Johnny Hockey' exemplified all of the aforementioned traits just 47 seconds into the middle frame as the Flames winger beat out two Oilers defenders before sniping his 29th goal of the season through the five-hole of Koskinen.
With the goal, Gaudreau extended his point streak to 11 games with 10 goals and 13 assists over that span. He became the third Flames player since 1994-95 to have a point streak of at least 11 games.
"He's elite. We're blessed in our league with the quality of players that we have," said Calgary Flames Head Coach Bill Peters post-game. "We're blessed in the province of Alberta with the stars that we have on our respective teams. It was fun game to be a part of."
After the Oilers failed to capitalize on a four-minute double minor on Mark Giordano, the defenceman found himself on the scoresheet once again - but this time in the goal column. The 6-foot-1 rearguard put home his 11th of the season on a goalmouth scramble on the Flames power play. With the primary assist on the play, Sean Monahan extended his personal point streak to five games.
With just 4:30 to go in the second period, the Flames added another as Oliver Kylington found a soft spot behind the Edmonton defence and made good on a nifty pass from Mikael Backlund. Kylington's marker - which found its way through the wickets of Koskinen - was the second goal of his NHL career (25 games).
As the Oilers looked to be heading to the locker room down three, a fantastic give-and-go play between Jesse Puljujarvi and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins resulted in the Oilers first goal of the hockey game. Nugent-Hopkins beat David Rittich clean on the blocker side for his 16th goal of the season; the centreman also extended his point streak to four games and now has nine points (2G, 7A) in his last 7 games. Puljujarvi's assist was his fourth helper of the season.
"Our play wasn't good enough and that's what got us into a 3-0 hole," said Milan Lucic after the game. "A really good play at the end of the second to give us some momentum going into the intermission and a lot to look forward to going into the third. We had chances at times, especially in the second period, to get ourselves back in it within a goal. It ended up being too big of a hole to climb out of.
"It's unfortunate, I don't think our heads as a group was in the right spot until the start of the third and we get nothing out of it."