The Edmonton Oilers ended the pre-season with a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames Saturday night.
LISTEN BELOW: Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett speaks to 630 CHED.
The Oilers went 3-4-0 in the pre-season.
Leon Draisaitl had a great chance to open the scoring on the power play early in the second, but David Rittich slid across the crease for the denial. Toby Rieder, who was scoreless in 67 games with the Oilers last season, opened the scoring with a wrist shot to Mikko Koskinen’s glove side. A few minutes later, another former Oiler struck. Milan Lucic buried a power play rebound to make it 2-0 Calgary.
The Oilers tied it halfway through the third when Gaetan Haas and Zack Kassian scored 31 seconds apart. Joakim Nygard assisted on both goals.
“We came in their zone pretty good, but we look for passes all the time,” said Nygard. “We talked about it after the first period; we have to take the shots and take it from there. So we did a little bit better in the third, but we have to shoot more.”
LISTEN BELOW: Edmonton Oiler Joakim Nygard speaks to 630 CHED.
With 5:34 left, T.J. Brodie jumped on an Oilers turnover and wristed a shot on goal. It went in off Rieder.
“Actually, the shot attempts, we were ahead,” said Oilers head coach Dave Tippett. “We weren’t hitting the net. We missed the net three or four times. Their goaltender made a couple of real good saves for them early. But, third period, we were able to come through and get a couple of goals. But, like we’ve seen a couple of times in the preseason, a critical mistake has hurt us.”
Neither Connor McDavid nor Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played for the Oilers.
The Oilers open the regular season Wednesday at home against the Vancouver Canucks.
Watch below: Some Global News videos about the Edmonton Oilers.