The Edmonton Oilers visited the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night in the final contest of the pre-season for the Flames. Dressing their probable opening night roster laden with stars, the Flames instead got offensive contributions from the former Oilers in their lineup en route to a 3-2 home victory.

The rundown

Neither team scored in the first period. Shots were 9-3 Flames, but you could make a good case that the Oilers generated the more dangerous scoring opportunities – they just kept missing the net.
The Flames kept pouring on the pressure in the second period and finally broke through the deadlock. Midway through the period, Tobias Rieder beat Mikko Koskinen with a glove-side wrister off the rush to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later the Flames had a power play and responded with a goal. After some nice pressure and puck movement from the second unit, Rasmus Andersson’s initial point shot hit Koskinen’s pads. But Milan Lucic was on the door-step to bonk in the rebound to make it 2-0 Flames.
Shots 10-9 Flames in the second.
Gaetan Haas broke David Rittich’s shutout bid midway through the third, with a nice redirect off a Joakim Nygard shot on an Oilers power play to cut the lead to 2-1 Flames. Just 31 seconds later, Zack Kassian scored on an almost identical redirect play (off another Nygard effort) past Rittich to tie the game at 2-2.
But just when you thought it was all doom and gloom, the the Flames re-established the lead. The Oilers coughed up the puck in their own end and TJ Brodie chucked a puck on net that deflected off Rieder and beat Koskinen high blocker-side to make it 3-2 Flames.
Shots were 16-3 Oilers in the final period, but the Flames held on for the victory.

Why the Flames won

Well, they dressed the better lineup, with Edmonton leaving many of their best and brightest up north. But the Flames were also poised, composed and generally pretty solid in all three zones. Their special teams played well. They generated chances at even strength. Their goaltending was solid.
In a meaningless 60 minutes of hockey, the Flames were simply the better club.

Red warrior

On his busiest evening of the pre-season, Rittich was rock solid for the team in red. He made big saves when called upon and provided stability for his team.
But stick-taps to Rieder and Lucic for the offensive efforts against their old team.

The turning point

We’ve gotta go with Rieder’s second goal, which gave the Flames a late lead after they coughed up a 2-0 edge.

This and that

Postmedia’s Kristen Anderson capturing the true spirit of pre-season hockey:
Flames center Mikael Backlund left the game midway through the second period.
Sam Bennett won 11 of 15 draws he took (a 73% success rate) in his first game as a center in awhile.

Up next

Friends, the pre-season is finally complete. Hooray. The Flames are off tomorrow and Monday for team-building, and then they hit the ice again on Tuesday. They have to file a cap compliant roster with the NHL office on Tuesday at 3 p.m. MT. After that? It’s the first game of the regular season on Thursday night in Denver.
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