Connor McDavid scored the game winner in the third as the Edmonton Oilers downed the Calgary Flames 3-2 Friday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers are 5-2 against the Flames this season.
Michael Stone fired a point shot past a screened Mike Smith for his first of the season with 7:37 to go in the first. The Oilers had 14 shots in the first after having only 16 the entire game Tuesday in Montreal.
“I give (the players) a ton of credit because coming off that trip, there wasn’t a lot of energy in our group,” head coach Dave Tippett said.
“We won that game in Toronto and got on the plane and went back to Montreal and everybody was looking at it like: ‘Where are we going?’ because it’s a game that was kind of thrown in there.”
LISTEN BELOW: Dave Tippett
“I’m glad we got back, we got a day’s rest and came out and got points.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins flipped in a backhand on the power play early in the second.
Four minutes later, right after another Oilers man advantage expired, Matthew Tkachuk jumped out of the box, took a breakaway pass and beat Smith for his 10th of the season.
The Oilers replied with a sharp four-way passing play, Leon Draisaitl to Ethan Bear to Kailer Yamamoto to Dominik Kahun, who tapped in his sixth.
“I’m trying to be that more and more, just being in the net-front a little more,” Kahun said.
“On that goal I just tried to go hard there and it was a great play from the guys.”
LISTEN BELOW: Dominik Kahun
“We felt like we were getting some chances so it’s good to see our power play get us back even and then once you get it even again it feels like you’re moving the right direction,” Tippett said.
In the third, Kailer Yamamoto drove to the net and drew an interference penalty on Noah Hanifin.
Right off the face-off on the ensuing power play, McDavid snapped a shot that went through Jacob Markstrom and dribbled over the goal line.
“You’re not going to win or go very far with one or two players,” Smith said. “I think it takes a group to be successful in this league and have parity.
“The guys did a tremendous job tonight to hang with it and make sure we’re controlling what we can.”
Smith made 24 saves to improve to 13-3-1. The Oilers were 2/5 on the power play.
“We want to be playing our best hockey going into the playoffs and that’s not a switch you can just turn off and on, so we want to continue to play well,” Smith said.
LISTEN BELOW: Mike Smith
The Oilers, 23-14-1, will start a three-game road trip in Montreal on Monday.
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