Instant Reaction: Flames battle back to beat Oilers in the shootout

A few minutes later the Flames got a power play off a David Tomasek minor, but while they generated some solid looks – 4 scoring chances, 2 high-dangers but only one shot – they couldn’t bury anything.

Shortly after that Flames power play, the Oilers cashed in again. Andrew Mangiapane stretched to stay on-side after losing a puck battle with Jake Bean just inside the Flames blueline. Connor McDavid collected the puck, skated into the zone and set up Mangiapane, who had a clean shooting lane and beat Wolf glove-side just inside the far post to give Edmonton a 2-0 advantage.

First period shots were 9-4 Oilers. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 6-2 Oilers (high-danger chances were 1-1 Oilers). The Flames didn’t register a shot in the final 8:37 of the first period.

The Flames were chasing for a good chunk of the second period. Eventually, it caught up to them. After a few Flames were caught out on a long shift and finally got a line change, Adam Klapka took a hooking minor on McDavid as the Oilers captain whizzed through the neutral zone. On the resulting power play, Tomasek made a nice back-hand pass to Leon Draisaitl at the far post for the back-door tap-in to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. (It was Tomasek’s first NHL point.)

A little later, though, the Flames got on the board. Matvei Gridin took a pass from Nazem Kadri and drove into the Edmonton zone. He threw a puck to the slot area, looking to make a pass to Matt Coronato… but the puck bonked off Noah Philp’s skate and into the Oilers net past Stuart Skinner. That cut the Oilers lead to 3-1, and was the first-ever NHL goal for Gridin.

A little later, the Flames received their second power play of the game off a Tomasek minor, and they made this one count. On  a scrambly play in the front of the Oilers net, the puck blooped into the air and Connor Zary swatted it out of mid-air and into the Edmonton net to cut the Oilers advantage to 3-2. (The play was reviewed, but the Situation Room determined it to be a legal goal not whacked in with a high stick.)

Second period shots were 11-7 Oilers. 5v5 scoring chances were 7-7 and high-danger chances were 4-2 Oilers.

40 seconds into the third period, the Flames tied the game off another weird one. Zary threw the puck on net from the neutral zone as he went for a change. Skinner made the stop on Zary’s dump-in, but he seemed to be unable to decide what to do next. Blake Coleman, forechecking, skated to the net and poked the loose puck into the Oilers net to tie the game at 3-3.

The Flames and Oilers exchanged power plays for much of the remainder of the third period, but regulation solved nothing and this game went to overtime.

Third period shots were 9-8 Oilers. 5v5 scoring chances were 5-1 Oilers and high-dangers were 2-1 Oilers.

Overtime went back and forth for a bit. MacKenzie Weegar was called for holding on Connor McDavid with 1:29 left in overtime, but the Flames managed to kill it off.

In the shootout, Frost and Nazem Kadri scored in a lengthy shootout, while Draisaitl scored for Edmonton. The Flames won 4-3.

Why the Flames won

This was a weird game.

The Flames went down 3-0 because they took some undisciplined penalties and when they weren’t killing penalties, they just couldn’t generate a ton as Edmonton did a nice job keeping them to the outside.

But give the red team credit: rather than fold up shop after the third Oilers goal, they did a pretty nice job battling and being perfectly content in scoring ugly goals. It was a gutsy two points when it seemed midway through that things could’ve gotten out of hand for them.

Red Warrior

We’ll give this one to Gridin, who was consistently noticeable and scored his first goal. But let’s give an honourable mention to MacKenzie Weegar, who played a ton and was quite good as well (aside from the penalty in overtime), and Wolf, who was really sharp in the back half of this game as his team mounted their comeback.

Turning point

It sounds trite, but man, Gridin’s goal was huge for the Flames. They couldn’t generate a whole lot offensively prior to that point, and scoring one ugly goal seemed to give the group the gumption to try to score a bunch of ugly goals.

This and that

This was the first career NHL game for Flames forward Matvei Gridin. (He scored a goal!)

Rasmus Andersson and Blake Coleman wore the alternate captain’s As for this road game.

After Burner

Join Cami Kepke and Mike Gould right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames are hopping on a plane and heading west. They face the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday night.