The Battle of Alberta was a beauty Wednesday night at Rogers Place.
The Calgary Flames won it 4-3 in a shootout in a game that lived up to the hype.
The Flames took the lead 1:01 in when Elias Lindholm’s bad angle shot ticked off Adam Larsson’s stick and eluded Mike Smith.
“A little bit of a flukey one to start there puts us behind the eight-ball, but I thought we did a good job battling back to earn a point and then lose it in a ‘skills competition’,” McDavid said.
The fists flew with two fights 24 seconds apart late in the first.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sean Monahan dropped the gloves after getting tangled up in front of the benches.
“Anything can happen when it’s two teams like us going up against each other,” Nugent-Hopkins said of his third career fight.
“It felt good,” Monahan said. “I fought before in junior but yeah it’s been a long time. Emotion gets the best of you and sometimes it just happens.”
Then, it was the one fans had been waiting for. Zach Kassian and Matthew Tkachuk went toe-to-toe off a face off in the Flames end. Kassian was in control over the course of the brief bout.
“I wish that would’ve happened in the first place and then it would’ve been done,” Kassian said. “I respect him for stepping up to the plate. That’s that.”
“It had nothing to do with the hits or anything like that, Tkachuk said. “I just didn’t like getting pummelled at home like I did. A lot of people didn’t want me to do it but I wanted to. It was kind of a way for me to stick up for myself.”
“You’ve got to give him credit for stepping in and standing in there; not many guys would do that against Kassian. But ultimately he was running around so he’s got to do that,” McDavid said.
Kailer Yamamoto slammed in the rebound of a Nugent-Hopkins shot 5:48 in the second.
Andrew Mangiapane fired home a one-timer after an Oilers turnover to the put the Flames back in front. Alex Chiasson replied on an Oilers power play, but Mangiapane made it 3-2 Calgary in the last minute of the second, outwaiting Smith in tight and scoring on the backhand.
Derek Ryan had a shorthanded breakaway halfway through the the third, but Smith came up with a glove save.
“Overall we battled all the way through,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We found a way to get one and tie it up late. It goes to a shootout and they beat us there but overall I think we should be pretty happy, but we’ve got to keep pushing here and keep moving forward.”
With 8:11 to go, Matt Benning wove into the Flames zone and slid the puck under David Rittich for his first of the season. Benning has battled through concussions this season and was playing his first game since December 1.
Draisaitl had a breakaway in the first minute of overtime but was denied by Rittich. Later, T.J. Brodie was in alone on Smith, but Smith made the stop.
Sean Monahan scored the only goal of the shootout. Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid both hit the post on their attempts. Rittich poke-checked Draisaitl to end the game.
The Oilers, 26-18-6, will host St. Louis on Friday.
–With files from 630 CHED’s Brenden Escott and Kyle Morris
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