GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Flames 1

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers earned their 13th straight victory on Saturday night, setting the NHL record for the longest win streak by a Canadian team with a 3-1 triumph over the Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta at Scotiabank Saddledome.

"It's very cool," netminder Stuart Skinner said of the record. "It's a little bit surprising that it kind of took this long. There's been so many great Canadian teams that have played, so I'm happy that were able to break it."

Ryan McLeod, Sam Gagner and Zach Hyman all scored for Edmonton, while Skinner made 26 saves to earn his 10th straight victory and match Grant Fuhr's franchise record for consecutive wins by an Oilers goaltender.

"It wasn't the prettiest one, but it all starts at the back end with Stu," Hyman said of his team's netminder. "Obviously he's been playing some pretty incredible hockey. He followed it up tonight with another stellar performance. You win a lot of games when you only let one goal, so he was phenomenal."

The Oilers have won a franchise-record nine straight games on the road while having allowed two goals or fewer in 11 straight contests.

"We like playing on the road," Connor McDavid said. "We like playing at home, but, you know, playing on the road is fun in hostile environments. It just feels like you're playing against everybody in the rink, and that's fun for us to do."

The Blue & Orange will begin a three-game homestand before the All-Star break on Tuesday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

With Calgary's netminder Dan Vladar looking sharp early, it would take a terrific transition through the neutral zone by the Oilers and a quick finish from Ryan McLeod to break the Battle of Alberta open.

Warren Foegele was the first to test the Calgary crease guard in close on a chance five minutes in that was created off a backhand pass from Evander Kane, but Vladar's strong pad save set the tone for an impressive period from the netminder with 12 saves on 13 shots.

"At first, you just really kind of respect what he's doing on the other end," Skinner said of his counterpart in Calgary's crease. "So when you do see that as a goalie, you know that chances are, they're going to come back my way. And for me, it's just knowing that I got to do my part too. Vladar played a great game, and that also inspires me to come up with the big saves that I need to give ourselves a chance to win because it's going to be a hard night to score."

Soon after, Connor McDavid chipped the puck around Chris Tanev for a short-lived breakaway where he could only release a quick low shot, but Vladar was once again able to make the confident stop.

Derek Ryan would be the third member of the Blue & Orange to be denied on the breakaway when the 37-year-old was sent in alone by a full-ice feed from Evan Bouchard, but Dennis Gilbert backtracked and forced Ryan to his backhand to make it a routine save for the netminder.

"I thought we could have had a lot of goals in the first period," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We had three breakaways in the first period, a great two-on-one and some other looks. They're just not going in for us right now, and hopefully, when it matters and we need those goals it'll start swinging."

The Oilers were finally able to solve the shot-stopper just inside the final five minutes of the frame on a transition up ice through Vincent Desharnais, who found Foegele at the blueline before the puck was pushed into the path of McLeod, who broke across the blueline with speed and flipped his ninth goal of the season over Vladar for the 1-0 lead.

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers were caught with too many players in deep on Calgary's equalizing goal that game just 1:58 into the middle frame.

After Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman had a two-on-one broken up by Rasmus Andersson, Mackenzie Weegar retrieved the loose puck and pushed it ahead to Blake Coleman to create a three-on-one rush for Cody Ceci to defend.

Weegar offloaded the pass and went hard to the net before redirecting the return feed from Coleman over Stuart Skinner's left shoulder to make it 1-1 heading into the third period.

Edmonton was locked into another tight battle in a one-goal game heading into the third period – a situation they'd been in many times and had success over their 12 consecutive wins.

"It's kind of the same story I think just with the way we started," Skinner said. "We learned a lot of lessons, a lot of hard lessons I think, and I believe we're still learning them from time to time and it's just that continuous growth and growing our game.

"We were going to the third period and we felt pretty comfortable in the spot that were in just because we've been playing so many games like that. So that's the kind of hockey we want to play, and those are normally the teams that do some good damage in playoffs too, so it's good."

THIRD PERIOD

To assemble a win streak as long as 12 games, you need to get a little bit lucky along the way. In the third period, the Oilers got the bounce they needed to make history.

Sam Gagner got a stroke of luck that lifted Edmonton into a 2-1 lead just 1:39 into the third period when he threw a puck in front for his linemates Connor Brown and Dylan Holloway that ricocheted off Rasmus Andersson and Vladar's glove on its way into the back of the net for the 2-1 Oilers lead.

Gagner missed 10 games with an injury before he returned to the lineup in Thursday's win over the Seattle Kraken, but every time he's in the lineup, 'Papa Clutch' just seems to come up exactly that.

"He's clutch," Hyman said. "You guys call him 'Papa Clutch', right? It's pretty cool. It seems whenever he's in the lineup, he has an impact on the game."

"He has been clutch and we're very happy with what he's been doing," Knoblauch said. "Unfortunately, we missed him for about a month out of the lineup because of his health issue, and once he recovered from his injury and we got him back in the lineup, he's instantly helped our team."

Edmonton's penalty kill was tasked with an important kill before the midway mark of the period when Mattias Janmark was given a goaltender interference penalty, but the unit stayed resilient and finished the night 3-for-3.

"Lots of things are going well," McDavid said. "Stu's given us a chance every night and so has Picks when he's gone in there, all six D-men are playing really solid, battling really hard at the net. I think our PK has been fantastic. It's always a good feeling when you know that your PK can bail you out of situations and it has multiple times. It did again tonight there with a big kill in the third period and it's just been solid all over."

The record was wrapped up with a sublime effort from Hyman with Calgary's net empty as the winger won the race to a cleared puck, pursued it in deep and wrapped the insurance goal into the gaping twine for the 3-1 lead and his 28th of the season with 35 seconds left in regulation.

Skinner highlighted another strong defensive performance for the Oilers – their 11th in a row allowing two or fewer goals.

PARTING WORDS

Hyman on Edmonton's ability to win tight games:

"We're not losing the games where we don't score. I think that's the difference. We're playing sound defensively, we're not cheating for offense and I think when you're not scoring as much, it's because you're not giving up as much and I think that's the key. So it's good to be winning. It doesn't matter how you win."

Knoblauch on the focus of his group on the task at hand despite all the records:

"It is pretty cool, but we are trying to stay humble and focused. I think there's a lot on the line. We talk about the standings and what we need to accomplish – and are we happy with where we are right now? We should feel good about where we are, but we're not really happy and content. And I think once we get content about where we are, we'll start to relax. We'll start taking shortcuts and I don't see our team doing that at all. We're very driven, which is wonderful for a coach to have a group of players working as hard as they are and focused on the task. It just makes our job as coaching staff pretty easy."