Calgary Flames break seven-game losing streak against Edmonton Oilers
By Ramina Shlah
The Calgary Flames finally won a game! They beat the Edmonton Oilers for the second time this season and broke a seven-game losing streak.
They did it! The Calgary Flames have finally won a game! If they lost this one in regulation, it would have been the first time in franchise history that the Flames would lose eight consecutive games in regulation. But thank goodness that didn’t happen.
The last time the Flames won was against the Edmonton Oilers, oddly enough. That was the game they finally beat them for the first time in seven games and they did it again tonight.
Spencer Foo made his NHL debut tonight after being recalled from Stockton. He was put on a line with Johnny Gaudreau, who also just returned to Calgary after being at home with his family for a few days due to a family emergency. Oliver Kylington was also recalled from Stockton, but he’ll only be able to play if another defenceman gets injured or sick.
Let’s check out how the Flames got here tonight.
Related Story: Flames finally win Battle of Alberta
First period
Less than three minutes into the game, the Oilers had some good pressure. But it wasn’t necessarily the pressure that got the Calgary Flames. Mike Smith tried to play the puck, poorly mishandled it, passed it right to Zack Kassian who got it right to Anton Slepyshev with an open and empty net and got it in the net.
Glen Gulutzan challenged the goal for offside but of course, it was ruled a good goal. So now the Flames will go on the penalty-kill. This is going to be a great game.
And I was right! A few minutes later, the 3M line minus Matthew Tkachuk went down the ice and Mikael Backlund got a nice pass over to the league-leading goal-scoring defenceman, Dougie Hamilton, who got his 17th goal of the season. It’s now a tie game! Wow, the Flames scored a goal? Weird.
Around the midway mark, Brett Kulak went down and had a great scoring chance on Cam Talbot, but it’s still a tie game. Shortly after, the Oilers went on their second powerplay of the night. On the PK for the Flames, Garnet Hathaway and Mark Jankowski went down the ice. It seemed to be a bit of an innocent play and Hathaway shot it at Talbot. Unfortunately for Talbot, it was a goal he would like to have back. But luckily for Hathaway, he broke a 41-game goalless drought!
This is the first time the Flames have a lead in 274:23.
With less than five minutes to go in the first, the Flames were doing a good job at getting pucks to the net. Backlund saw Talbot go down after making a save and was out of position, he took advantage and made it a 3-1 game. This game is fun again. Now, after going 11 games with no points, Backlund has two so far this period.
That would also be it for Cam Talbot who allowed three goals on seven shots. Al Montoya would spend the rest of the game between the pipes.
Late in the period, the Flames went on the PP and had some decent chances. Their biggest from Dougie who hit the post. But they were scoreless on that PP.
This period ended 3-1 for the Flames with the Oilers outshooting them 9-7. Let’s head to the second period.
Second period
Calgary Flames
Early in the second period, the Calgary Flames applied some good pressure and got a powerplay as a result. The Oilers got a couple of shorthanded chances, one which resulted in Mark Jankowski going hard to the net/Smith and ended up going hard into the boards. Smith went to him right away and while he was slow to get up, he stayed on the bench.
Later in the period, Matt Bartkowski had a bad turnover and Smith had to come up big. But the Flames still couldn’t clear the puck and Mike Cammalleri deflects the puck in. This is his first goal in 31 games and it’s not very Forever a Flame of him. The flames lead by just one at this point and need to watch out.
The last five minutes really heated up for these two teams with chances going both way. One big chance from Johnny Gaudreau to Nick Shore to Spencer Foo, but the puck got intercepted on it’s way back to Foo.
This period ended 3-2 for the Flames as they were badly outplayed. The Oilers outshot them 12-5, out shot-attempted them 24-7, and out-chanced them 11-3. It wasn’t a great period for the Flames. Let’s head to the final frame.
Third period
The Oilers had some good pressure in the Calgary Flames zone early on after a Connor McDavid to Leon Draisaitl chance which hit the post. Things were getting quite heated between the two teams and Mark Jankowski and Drake Caggiula got into it. It was Janko’s first NHL fight and only Caggiula’s second.
Well, that wasn’t the only fight. This period got a lot more heated. Mike Smith finally got his fight he’s been waiting all season for against Milan Lucic. There are now four Flames players in the box and three Oilers players. Ah, the good ol’ Battle of Alberta, hey?
In the dying seconds of the Oilers PP, Mike Smith made an incredible save then right back the other way the Flames went and Al Montoya had to be sharp as well. Then, Tanner Glass decided to finish Smith’s work by also fighting Lucic.
There was a lot going on.
Those were the ends of all the fights and the Oilers really pressed in the last couple of minutes in the period but the Flames got out of this one alive.
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They finally win a game! And they scored more than one goal! This was fun, hey?
Let’s do it again sometime.