Post-Game: A battle worthy of the name

Over the past several years, we’ve seen several really bad Battles of Alberta. Not only did the rivalry mean very little, but a lot of the games sucked. Tonight’s edition between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers had a bit of a sleepy opening period, but ended up being a fabulous 65+ minutes of ice hockey.

In the end, the Flames were what they’ve been for the past few games: inconsistent. They couldn’t quite match the intensity of the Oilers in the second half of the game and in the end were lucky to make it to extra time. The Flames’ extended their extra time losing streak to four games and their points streak to 11 games through a 4-3 shootout loss to the Oilers.

The Flames played a strong game early on, playing with some speed and tenacity. They opened the scoring early on, as Mark Giordano swatted down an attempting Oilers clearing pass. It was collected by Mikael Backlund and some quick passing from Backlund to Troy Brouwer and Brouwer to Matthew Tkachuk led to a nice one-timer and a 1-0 lead.

Chances for the rest of the period were fairly even, but the Flames jumped on another wonky Oilers defensive play and capitalized late in the period. A loose puck was collected by Dougie Hamilton in the high slot, he passed it to Giordano for a wrister through traffic that glanced off Kris Russell’s shin and in to make it 2-0.

Shots were 14-10 Flames, scoring chances were 14-6 Flames.

The Oilers gained momentum in the second period and really found their stride. Calgary’s fourth line got hemmed into their own end after an Oilers penalty kill, leading to some running around in their own end and unintentional stacking of bodies in front of David Rittich. That allowed Brandon Davidson to score on a wrister through a partial screen from the faceoff circle to make it 2-1.

Edmonton tied it up at 2-2 off a pair of ugly offensive rushes turned into turnovers by Sean Monahan’s line. Their first turnover ended up being broken up, but a second three-on-two rush saw Monahan unable to get back to break things up and Zack Kassian buried a rebound after an initial Rittich save to tie the game with the second Oilers goal in 64 seconds. Shots were 12-7 Oilers but scoring chances were 9-5 Flames.

Once again, the Flames couldn’t score on a power play in the third. Once again, it cost them. After another kill by the Oilers, the Flames lost a battle for a 50/50 puck in the corner of their own zone. Instead of guarding the point, Troy Brouwer elected to go after the puck carrier, opening Davidson for a pass and a point shot for his second goal of the game and a 3-2 Oilers lead.

But the Flames rallied back to tie the game up. Mikael Backlund stole the puck from Matt Benning and found Tkachuk driving the net for a chip-in goal and a 3-3 game.

Shots were 10-10 and scoring chances were 10-9 Flames.

The Flames had some decent chances in overtime, but the game appeared to be over and done with after Connor McDavid drove the net and Ryan Strome buried the rebound. But the goal was reviewed and called back because the Situation Room – who review every goal scored in overtime or late in games automatically – called down and decided (in consultation with the referees in Edmonton) that McDavid cutting across the crease and hooking Rittich’s stick with his back foot impeded his ability to save the second shot.

Overtime continued so we went to a shootout, where Mike Cammalleri and McDavid scored while Matthew Tkachuk responded for the Flames to make the game a 4-3 final for Edmonton. (McDavid’s deciding shootout goal was followed by a taunt by McDavid to the officials and an abuse of officials penalty as a result.)

It’s a shame that a lot of the discourse will be about the McDavid no-goal or abuse of officials call, because this was a fantastic hockey game.

Let’s just say once again for the record that a shootout is a terrible way to decide anything. But the Flames are really bad at them. And when they got to overtime, their players seemed exhausted and simply didn’t have the energy to generate much.

But they got to overtime by way of some flat play in the second half. It was only by the efforts of Rittich and the Backlund line that they eked their way into a point.

The power play remains awful. They generated just four shots in 7:36 of PP time. Twice they failed to score and the Oilers got momentum from the kill and scored soon after; that’s unacceptable.

Tkachuk was a beast in this game and gets the nod, but Backlund and Rittich were also quite good.

Let’s go with two goals against in 64 seconds in the second period. The Flames were well on their way to a regulation victory, but a lack of attention to detail led to two goals and a tied game.

Ryan Lomberg’s first NHL game!

The Flames now have 58 points with 33 games remaining. They need 37 points over their remaining schedule – the equivalent of a 18-14-1 record to hit the 95 point mark that’ll probably be the playoff cut-off.

The Flames (25-16-8) head home tonight and then sit tight for the weekend. Mike Smith and Johnny Gaudreau are off to Tampa for the All-Star Game. They’re all back in action on Tuesday when the Flames meet the Vegas Golden Knights for their first-ever meeting.