On Monday, the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers played twice – once in Calgary and once in Edmonton.
In the Edmonton half of the set, the Flames spotted themselves a 4-0 lead by the midway point of the second period and managed to fend off a second half charge from Edmonton’s aces, holding on for a 6-3 exhibition triumph.

The rundown

The Flames opened the scoring midway through the first period off the rush. Amidst a nice passing sequence between Anthony Mantha, Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil, blueliner Yan Kuznetsov jumped into the rush and finished the sequence with a shot from the slot that beat Calvin Pickard to make it 1-0 Flames.
A little later, the Flames cashed in again, this time with Mantha finishing off a give-and-go passing sequence with Huberdeau with a back-door tap-in to make it 2-0.
In the second period, the Flames added to their lead. On a power play, Rasmus Andersson fired a shot from the point that beat Pickard to make it 3-0.
About a minute later, the Flames added to their lead, with Matt Coronato’s shot handcuffing Pickard and going into the net to give the road team a 4-0 edge.
Zach Hyman spoiled Devin Cooley’s shutout bid in the waning minutes of the second period, though, cutting the Calgary lead to 4-1.
Early in the third period, the Oilers cut into the lead more, with Noel Hoefenmayer getting credit for a puck flung towards the net-front area that bonked around a bit. That cut the Flames’ lead to 4-2 and threatened to turn this into a hockey game.
However, Coronato had no interest in such shenanigans, finishing off a rush sequence with a shot that beat Oilers relief netminder Brett Brochu to give the Flames a 5-2 lead.
A little later, Justin Kirkland scored to make it 6-2 Flames.
Midway through the third, obscure hockey player Connor McDavid – one of three Connors dressed for the Oilers in the game – scored to cut the Flames lead to 6-3. But that’s as close as the home side got and the Flames held on for the 6-3 win.

Why the Flames won

This was pretty similar to the road win the Flames earned in Seattle on Sunday night. They didn’t blow the doors off the home team necessarily, but they had their work boots on and the scored goals at key times to grab hold of this game. And then they managed to defend well and get some solid goaltending to pick up the well-earned zero points.

Red Warrior

Take your pick between Huberdeau (three assists), Honzek (three assists) and Coronato (two goals).

Turning point

The pair of quick goals in the second period to extend the Flames’ lead to four goals were pretty big in the flow of the game.

This and that

Here’s how the Flames lined up:
Huberdeau [A]-Pospisil-Mantha
Ciona-Rooney [A]-Duehr
Honzek-Kirkland-Coronato
Bishop-Lipinski-Misa
Tinordi-Andersson [A]
Jurmo-Brzustewicz
Kuznetsov-Mews
Devin Cooley started in net and went the distance, backed up by Connor Murphy.

Up next

The Flames have an off day on Tuesday. They’re back at it on Wednesday night when they head to Abbotsford to visit the Vancouver Canucks.