GAME RECAP: Flames 6, Oilers 3

EDMONTON, AB – It was a Battle of Alberta to forget for the Blue & Orange.

After winning the last four meetings against their provincial rivals, the Edmonton Oilers were beaten 6-3 by the Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta on Saturday night to fall to their second defeat in back-to-back nights at Rogers Place.

Mattias Janmark had a goal and a fight in an impactful performance, while Zach Hyman contributed two goals in the loss to reach a new career high and grow his team-leading total to 37 goals on the season.

Connor McDavid added two more helpers to make it 17 assists in the last seven games for the Oilers captain, but the defeat drops Edmonton's overall record to 33-20-2 on the season and 4-5-1 since returning from the All-Star Break.

"I think just learning from our mistakes," said Stuart Skinner, who had 25 saves in the loss. "This could be the best thing for our group heading down the stretch learning how to not have the stretches that we're having right now where we're not doing our thing, and that starts with me."

The Oilers continue their five-game homestand on Monday night in another important Pacific Division tilt against the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

Through the first 10 minutes, you could tell it was going to be an uphill Battle of Alberta for the Blue & Orange.

"We obviously addressed the start and it was not what we expected," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "A couple of details that we wanted to make it hard for Calgary and we didn't do that."

The Flames began the contest playing like the team that had more to gain on Saturday night, with the proposition that their tenuous position in the Western Conference could vastly improve if they could earn a win against their provincial rivals for the first time in their last four meetings.

With a win over the Oilers coupled with a Nashville defeat, Calgary could pull to within one point of the final Wild Card position, while Edmonton would be one point off the Vegas Golden Knights for second in the Pacific Division if they could come away with the two points in the second of their weekend back-to-back on home ice.

Calgary's leading scorer Nazem Kadri capitalized on an Oilers turnover and opened the scoring 2:02 into the opening period when he redirected Walker Duehr's floated pass on the rush over the left shoulder of Skinner in front of Edmonton's crease early into regulation.

"The first goal where there's a turnover, it leads to a chance against that led to the goal," Knoblauch said. "We know that the energy is high and both teams want to do well, and it's more important at the start of a game than it is even at the start of the third period."

Before the period's midway mark, the Flames doubled their lead on a feathered pass from Connor Zary that unlocked Marin Pospisil, who sniped Calgary's second goal far side on Skinner from between the circles with 10:49 left in the middle frame.

The Oilers didn't make it easier on themselves when Leon Draisaitl's miss on an open net was deflected by a defender's stick and scraped over Calgary's net, leading to the Flames taking off up ice and making it 3-0 at the other end just 20 seconds after the German's miss on a snap shot from Martin Pospisil.

"Definitely concerning," Draisaitl said of his team's first period. "It just seems like weren't ready or our heads weren't into it early, and this league is too good to play catch up all the time. So another thing that we'll look at and definitely have to fix."

Edmonton was being outshot 12-4 and trailed by three goals before they began elevating their intensity; both physically and offensively with the onus on putting pressure toward Calgary's crease.

The Oilers battled their way back and earned a late-man advantage through Mattias Janmark, drawing the hooking call on defenceman Rasmus Andersson before their top-unit power play answered back at the end of an interesting sequence of events that came with 1:31 left before the intermission.

Draisaitl drove his way towards the Calgary crease before coming in contact outside the crease with Flames netminder Dan Vladar, who hit the deck looking to get a call out of the official. The referee said to play on, and after the puck was worked up top and onto the stick of Connor McDavid, the captain sent it toward goal where Hyman finished off the rebound on the second attempt past the re-positioned Vladar to make it 3-1 on his 36th goal of the season.

SECOND PERIOD

Despite Hyman registering goals on either side of the first intermission, it was two steps forward and two steps back to where they started for Edmonton.

Edmonton's leading goalscorer was sprung for a breakaway by Draisaitl inside the first five minutes of the middle frame, going to his backhand to lift his second goal of the contest and set a new career high with team-leading 37th goal to pull the Oilers to within one of the Flames down 3-2 with over three-quarters to play in the middle stanza.

Just after the seven-minute mark of the middle frame, Mattias Janmark and Blake Coleman were given respective coincidental cross-checking and embellishment calls, but the two weren't done settling their grievances after exiting the box and dropping the gloves for a spirited scrap that set the tone for a physical frame between the two provincial rivals.

But the Flames would undo the work that the Oilers did to get themselves back into the game over a 3:38 stretch in the middle stages of the second period.

"We never found it at all," Hyman said of Edmonton's game on Saturday. "We got it to 3-2, but I didn't feel like we played our best at any point in the game."

Dryden Hunt stepped up from the blueline for Calgary and delivered them back into a two-goal lead with a blocker-side finish on Skinner at the end of the long shift for Edmonton's skaters.

Leon Draisaitl was given an undisciplined hooking penalty on Walker Duehr just 27 seconds after the Oilers fell behind by two, sending the Flames to their fourth man advantage of the night that was converted by Noah Hanifin for the defenceman's second tally of the evening off a one-timer set up by Connor Zary.

"An undisciplined, stupid penalty on my behalf," Draisaitl admitted. "Certainly didn't help our team tonight in that way, so I take full ownership for that."

Before Edmonton escaped another challenging period, tensions would begin to boil over after Jonathan Huberdeau's cross-check into the back of Mattias Ekholm in the corner resulted in Corey Perry dropping the gloves with MacKenzie Weegar – earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the process.

THIRD PERIOD

The long shot of pulling their netminder with over seven minutes left in regulation didn't pay off for Edmonton, who fell behind 6-2 on a full-ice clearance for Blake Coleman that sealed the deal for the Flames on Saturday night.

"We were down three with about eight minutes left, and there's not many opportunities to pull the goalie," Knoblauch said. "I think the biggest, most important time to pull the goalie is when things can be organized. You're not changing on the fly because then, you don't have your full six guys out there. You're shorthanded for a while and we're down three with eight minutes left, and it's tough to score in this league. I felt that was the time to be aggressive."

That wasn't before tensions boiled over again in the final few minutes after a trio of 10-minute misconducts were handed out by the officials to Chris Tanev, Dylan Holloway and Evander Kane to guide the game to its ultimate conclusion.

A bright spot in the contest for Edmonton was Janmark, who scored his third goal in four games with a consolation tally at 16:16 of the final frame, but Calgary saw out their victory to claim their first Battle of Alberta victory since Oct. 16, 2022 when they won 4-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Oilers resume their busy schedule on Monday with a visit to Rogers Place from the Los Angeles Kings, continuing a stretch of 27 games in the next 53 days.

"You don't have too much time to overthink everything and change the whole script, so it's little details and that's also everyone's game," Skinner said. "I think we're good enough where it's not like you have to change a whole bunch of things, but just minimizing the mistakes that we're making."