It wasn’t as back and forth as Friday’s clash with the Winnipeg Jets, but the Calgary Flames had a pretty good evening at the office on Saturday night when they clashed with the Edmonton Oilers’ youngsters as part of the Young Stars Classic tournament in Penticton.
The Oilers scored first early on, but the Flames bounced back and held serve for much of the rest of the game, grabbing the lead and managing it reasonable well en route to a 3-1 victory over the Oilers prospects.

The rundown

The Flames were good early, but the Oilers scored first. Blueliner Eric Jamieson got caught a bit behind his own net by the Oilers’ forecheck, leading to a turnover. A couple quick passes later and Carl Berglund was all alone in the slot and beat Waltteri Ignatjew to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
But the Flames kept doing their thing and tied things up fairly soon afterwards. On the power play, some nice puck movement led to Luke Misa finding Andrew Basha with a great diagonal pass across the slot area – essentially from inside the far point across to the goaltender’s immediate left – and Basha’s one-timer beat Oilers goalie Connor Ungar to tie the game at 1-1.
A little later, a pass into the neutral zone from Samuel Honzek sent Sam Morton and William Strömgren into the Oilers’ zone on a quasi odd-man rush. Strömgren fed Morton and his wrister beat Ungar to give the Flames a 2-1 lead.
First period shots were 10-8 Flames.
Neither team scored in the second period, as the Oilers made occasional pushes to create offence and the Flames parried them away.
Second period shots were 6-5 Oilers.
The Oilers pressed for a good deal of the third period, too, but the Flames managed the puck and their defensive zone well, and Ignatjew made the saves he had to make. The Oilers did a good job halting their own momentum with a few third period penalties, too.
Edmonton pulled Ungar for the extra attacker. Ignatjew made an attempt at the empty net, but sadly it was swatted down by a high stick.
Subsequently, Misa scored on the empty net with the clock winding down to give the Flames a 3-1 victory.
Third period shots were 11-6 Oilers.

Why the Flames won

When the game was up for grabs, the Flames grabbed hold of it. And once they had the lead, they did enough to maintain that lead. It wasn’t like the Flames blew the doors off the Oilers by any stretch – shots were 25-21 Edmonton – but the Flames’ kids played a pretty coherent game in their own zone and Edmonton didn’t bear down on their chances.

Red Warrior

We’re going to single out Morton and Strömgren again, as they were great once again.
But some others that stood out positively included Ignatjew, Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, Misa, Lucas Ciona and Basha. Honzek wasn’t a standout after a quiet Friday night against Winnipeg, but he was much more noticeable.

This and that

Lines, via Sportsnet 960 The Fan’s Pat Steinberg:
Samuel Honzek – Sam Morton [A] – William Strömgren [A]
Lucas Ciona [A] – Luke Misa – Andrew Basha
Jacob Battaglia – Jaden Lipinski – Matvei Gridin
Parker Bell – Luke McNamara – Hunter Laing
Artem Grushnikov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Eric Jamieson – Zayne Parekh
Axel Hurtig – Henry Mews
Waltteri Ignatjew started in net, backed up by Matt Radomsky.
Parker Bell fought Connor Clattenberg in the first period, while Lucas Ciona fought Nate Corbet in the third period.

Up next

The Flames close out their tournament on Monday afternoon when they face the host Vancouver Canucks. It’s a 3:30 p.m. MT puck drop and available on the Flames website and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.