The Calgary Flames rebounded from a rough first period to down the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 Saturday night.
“We were playing a simple, direct game in the first period,” said head coach Dave Tippett. “And the second period we decided we were going to turn a lot of pucks over and ended up playing in our own zone too much — and ended up in the back of the net — and we chased it for the rest of the game.”
LISTEN BELOW: Dave Tippett
The Oilers have their three-game winning streak come to an end as their record drops to 6-7.
The Flames scored on their first shot of the game just 56 seconds in when Elias Lindholm beat Mikko Koskinen with a mid-range wrist shot. The Oilers owned the rest of the first, outshooting Calgary 17-3. Jujhar Khaira tallied his first of the year when he tipped William Lagesson’s point shot. It was Lagesson’s first career point. Connor McDavid ripped home a power play marker late in the first to put the Oilers up 2-1.
The Flames went back in front with goals 1:54 apart in the second period by Milan Lucic and Mikael Backlund.
Jesse Puljujarvi streaked in and beat Jacob Markstrom to even it up 1:18 in the third. However, Dillon Dube scored on the power play 1:38 later. Not long after, Johnny Gaudreau beat Mikko Koskinen over the glove to make it 5-3 Calgary. Darnell Nurse got one back for the Oilers with just over eleven minutes left, but Sam Bennett restored the Flames two-goal cushion two minutes later.
Markstrom made 28 saves for the win. Koskinen finished with 22 stops.
“They have a really good goaltender,” said Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson. “It takes a lot of volume shooting to score on that guy. He had a solid night. We felt good (in the) first period. I thought we played really good structured hockey and just couldn’t close it.”
LISTEN BELOW: Adam Larsson
It was the first of ten meetings this season between the Oilers and Flames.
The Oilers will play in Ottawa Monday and Tuesday.