GAME RECAP: Flames 4, Oilers 3 (SO)

EDMONTON, AB – What an unfortunate way to fall in your Home Opener.

The Calgary Flames came back from a three-goal deficit with three fluky goals to earn the extra point in an eight-round shootout on Wednesday night, securing a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the Battle of Alberta at Rogers Place to open the 2025-26 regular season.

The Oilers held a 3-0 lead on the Flames midway through the contest, having Ryan Nugent-Hopkins open their account on the power play in the first period and Andrew Mangiapane notch his first goal for the club later in the frame before Leon Draisaitl tallied his 400th career NHL goal with the man advantage.

Forward David Tomasek recorded his first career NHL point with an impressive through-the-legs pass on Draisaitl's historic marker during the second period.

But the Flames capitalized on some sloppy play from the Oilers in the second and third periods with a trio of fluky goals, starting with Matvei Gridin's first NHL goal just over two minutes after Draisaitl made it 3-0, which went in off the skate of Noah Philp to give the Flames a spark with 6:20 left in the second.

Winger Connor Zary batted one in out of mid-air on the power play to make it 3-2 before the second intermission, then centre Blake Coleman pounced on a mistake from netminder Stuart Skinner just 40 seconds into the third period, completing the comeback for the Flames and ultimately forcing overtime.

"You're up 3-0 and things are going really well, and then they get a bounce and you get on your heels," said Skinner, who stopped 18 of 21 shots.

Both teams had partial power plays in sudden death, but after solid showings from Stuart Skinner and Dustin Wolf in the shootout, forward Nazem Kadri won the extra point for the visitors in the eighth round of the shootout – the longest in NHL history in a game to begin the regular season.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finished with a goal and two assists, while both Leon Draisaitl (1G, 1A) and Connor McDavid (2A) each put forward multi-point performances in the defeat for the Oilers.

During the second intermission, Oilers General Manager and Executive VP of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman announced the team had agreed to terms with free-agent forward Jack Roslovic on a one-year contract valued at an average annual value of $1.5 million.

The Oilers will return to Rogers Place on Saturday to host the Vancouver Canucks.

NEW SEASON, SAME NUUUUUUGE!

Nothing Nuge about it.

There's no one better to score the first goal of a brand new regular season for the Oilers than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, their longest-tenured player who celebrated the start of his 15th season in a Blue & Orange uniform against the Flames by putting away a power-play goal 9:53 into the first period.

Edmonton's top-unit power play of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Tomasek and Bouchard capitalized on the game's first penalty assessed to Morgan Frost for putting the puck over the glass, flashing the puck towards the blue paint through 97 and 29 and setting up 93 at the far post for the 1-0 advantage.

Draisaitl quickly unloaded a hard pass from down low in the right circle to Nugent-Hopkins in front of the Calgary net, connecting on a one-timer that managed to sneak its way inside the post and across the goal line after Flames netminder Dustin Wolf caught a piece of his fast release.

McDavid and Draisaitl each picked up an assist to combine on a goal for the 129th time in their careers, passing Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar of Los Angeles (128) as well as Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov (128) of Tampa Bay for the fifth-highest total by a pair of teammates in NHL history.

"Sometimes it can weigh on you," Nugent-Hopkins said about scoring his first goal of the season. "But it's a really nice play by Leon and not really a set play, but it's something that we saw in the spur of the moment."

Nugent-Hopkins would add assists on Andrew Mangiapane's first goal as an Oiler later in the opening frame and again on Draisaitl's PPG in the second period, giving him nine points (2G, 7A) in his last eight meetings with the Flames in the Battle of Alberta.

Nugent-Hopkins' 19 goals and 30 assists in 59 games against Calgary over his career are his most against any team.

FIRST GOAL FOR THE FORMER FLAME

Welcome to the right side of the Battle of Alberta.

Making his first appearance with the Oilers, winger Andrew Mangiapane scored his first goal for Edmonton against his former Calgary team of seven seasons with a wicked snipe that extended the lead at 16:11 of the opening frame.

As the rest of McDavid's linemates changed, the Oilers captain – fresh off receiving a standing ovation during player intros after signing his new three-year contract extension on Monday – took the puck across the Flames blueline and button-hooked in the right circle before finding Mangiapane entering the zone.

The 29-year-old picked his spot clean over the left shoulder of Wolf, sniping an unbeatable effort into the top corner of the Calgary cage and having the puck hit the inside meshing before quickly bouncing out for the emphatic finish that doubled Edmonton's advantage before the first intermission.

Mangiapane posted 109 goals and 106 assists in 417 career games with the Flames from 2017-24, and his first tally with the Oilers during the first period was his first ever against them after recording 14 goals and 14 assists in 81 games for the Washington Capitals last season.

DRAISAITL'S 400TH GOAL OF HIS CAREER

Vierhundert für Leon.

The 400th goal of Leon Draisaitl's illustrious career 8:32 into the second period was a thing of beauty, and the slick through-the-legs pass from newcomer David Tomasek on the power play that made it all happen to increase the lead to 3-0 and give the 29-year-old forward his first career NHL point in his debut.

After Draisaitl won the offensive zone faceoff to Bouchard, Nugent-Hopkins got the puck on his stick and moved it down to Tomasek, who facing away from the Flames net with defenceman Joel Hanley on one knee right inside the crease, the Czech product was able to deliver a backhand dish under Hanley and through the legs of netminder Dustin Wolf for find the tape of the German to tap it into a wide-open net.

Debuting on the 'fourth line' with Adam Henrique and Isaac Howard, Tomasek impressed in 13:40 of ice time, including time on the first-unit power play, but was victimized by two stick infractions that resulted in Flames' power plays – one of which leading to their second goal in the middle frame.

"Overall, I thought he had a pretty good game," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I thought our power play was good, and I thought he had a lot to do with that. Overall, that so-called fourth line had many scoring chances. Overall, they played really well, especially early in the game, and all three of them had solid games. So I was very happy with his game. I'd just like to take out the penalties."

The power-play tally marked Draisaitl's 400th career regular-season goal in his 791st game, becoming the fourth player in Oilers history and third-fastest to score 400 goals (791 GP), trailing only Wayne Gretzky (436 GP) and Jari Kurri (608 GP). He also became the ninth-fastest player born outside of North America to reach 400 career goals.

The Oilers were off to a flying start against their Alberta rivals to begin the regular season, but there'd be adversity over the remaining 31:28 of regulation that would provide them some early lessons in how to hold down a lead by continuing to play on the front foot.

"I thought when we were playing on top of them, we were playing fast and simple," Nugent-Hopkins said. "There are a lot of things to like, but obviously, first one you'd like to close that one out. There's lots to like, but also a lot to learn."

FLAMES FLUKE OUT A POINT

It's not exactly how the Flames drew them up, but they'll take whatever goals they can get.

Starting with Matvei Gridin's unexpected bounce off the skate of Noah Philp with 8:20 gone in the second period to register his first career NHL goal, Calgary's fight back to earn at least a point on Wednesday wasn't pretty after the Flames got the game to overtime with a trio of fluky goals.

"We just kind of got sloppy with it, turned the puck over too much, and that gave them life," Nugent-Hopkins said. "They capitalized on one, and then obviously the power play, they started to get the momentum there. It started with 10 minutes of just being sloppy and turning the puck over."

For the Oilers, they couldn't shake the fact that they offered the Flames an opening with the help of some of their sloppy and careless play in their own end that started after Draisaitl had given them a 3-0 lead on the power play.

Even at this stage of the season, it's tough to swallow.

"It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, teams are gonna have their pushes and we gotta manage it better," Nugent-Hopkins added. "Tonight, we left them off the hook a little bit. We sat back and didn't play the way that we wanted to for those last 10 minutes in the second period, and they took advantage."

Gridin attempted to make a cross-ice pass to Matt Coronato that struck the unaware skate of Philp between the hashmarks to redirect it through the five-hole of Stuart Skinner, who couldn't react fast enough to stop it from crossing the goal line to make it 3-1 and give the Flames a spark.

Calgary then made it 3-2 on the power play with just over five minutes to go in the period, with Connor Zary batting a rebound out of mid-air in the crease and past the outstretched blocker of Skinner and putting it into the back of the net. After looking like it might've been over the crossbar, an official's review upheld the decision to make it a one-goal game entering the third period.

"The first goal was an unfortunate bounce in front of our net, but it should never have been in our end," Knoblauch said. "The two previous shifts right before that, we had a chance to get it in. We end up getting hemmed in because we didn't get a puck in deep. We didn't change. It started there, and then right before the goal, we had a turnover on the attack, and they came down and scored."

Just 40 seconds into the final frame, a dump-in from Zary slowly made its way to Skinner inside the crease, where the netminder held onto the puck too long in some missed communication with Bouchard to allow Blake Coleman to come through and poke it under him to make it 3-3 in stunning fashion.

"I just had to make a quicker decision," Skinner said. "The game happens fast down there, and it was just kind of a miscommunication, and I was slow to react to it. I think it was Coleman behind Bouch, and then it's a goal. Obviously, in the midst of it, if that doesn't go in, we win the game and two points."

The contest would make it to overtime, but the Oilers weren't out of the woods yet, having to kill off an untimely tripping penalty to Trent Frederic with 1:47 remaining in regulation while they pushed in the dying stages of the game for a late winner.

Skinner made an important save while shorthanded on Coronato's backhand attempt from between the hashmarks with under 30 seconds to go, but the best chance at a last-gasp winner came from Nugent-Hopkins, who flashed a snap shot wide with seconds on the clock after the Flames iced it to send it back to Calgary's zone for the final moments of regulation.

"But I think the way that we responded as a team was fantastic," Skinner continued. "We were able to get into OT and be able to get out of there as well. I think it's huge, especially the way that it happened with us being on the PK for the first 40 seconds in overtime."

OILERS CAN'T WIN IT IN EXTRA TIME

After killing off the time remaining on Frederic's penalty, the Oilers could've won the game in overtime with 1:29 of power-play time of their own to close out the extra period, but they weren't able to notch the timely PPG they needed to get a deserved victory in sudden death.

Instead, it was the Flames finding a way back in this contest to win a marathon shutout and claim the extra point in the Battle of Alberta to open the regular season after the Oilers closed out overtime with a flurry of chances on the four-on-three opportunity.

Both Skinner & Wolf were beaten once in the first three rounds of the shootout by Morgan Frost and Leon Draisaitl, respectively, but the netminders held their own for the next five rounds – with Skinner surviving a pair of posts from Matt Coronato and Matvei Gridin before Wolf was beaten cleanly by Kasperi Kapanen in the eighth round, but bailed out by the crossbar behind him.

That allowed Nazem Kadri the chance to end things on Calgary's sixth straight opportunity to win it, and he made no mistake by flipping the game-winner past Skinner and claiming the extra point in favour of the Flames.

"It was a great battle," Skinner said of the shootout. "Wolfie made some spectacular saves. He's so athletic. It really is fun to watch. I thought he played a great game. I thought I was able to make some good stops and battle, too. I think that was one of my better shootouts that I've had, so I feel like I've gotten better in that aspect.

"That's the Battle of Alberta. Going to the shootout and going eight or nine shooters, it's a fun game."