Two bounces propel Oilers to victory over Flames

In the end, two pucks that bounced over the sticks of Calgary Flames players led to them losing the second Battle of Alberta of the 2022 season, 3-2 on Saturday night.

A playoff-calibre Saturday night at the Saddledome, where Jacob Markstrom appeared to have slayed his Edmonton Oiler demons, turned when the Flames’ goalie gave the puck away to Connor McDavid partway through the third period while the Flames held a one-goal lead.

Markstrom - who to that point had stopped all but one shot - came out to stop a hard rim. Instead, it hopped over his stick and onto that of McDavid. Caught out of position, Markstrom scrambled to get back in his net but it was too late. The game was tied. Minutes later, Zach Hyman scored for Edmonton after some scrambled defensive zone coverage by Calgary’s Chris Tanev and MacKenzie Weegar.

McDavid ended the night with three points.

“Goaltending was fine,” Flames head coach Darryl Sutter said afterwards.

Markstrom’s struggles against the Oilers have been well-documented. On Saturday night, he was good. He stopped several point-blank Oilers scoring chances and managed the game well, ending with 23 saves on 26 shots. His biggest mistake, of course, was that third period skate.

“Both goalies probably made the saves they had to,” Sutter said. “We had trouble scoring on [Oilers' goaltender Stuart] Skinner in Edmonton [during the teams’ first meeting on Oct. 15], 31 shots and didn’t score a goal. We got two against him tonight and at the end of the day, you’ve got to score three goals.”

Skinner stopped 40 of 42 shots in the win. The coach didn’t pin the loss of Markstrom, instead saying that the onus was on skaters to make better decisions.

“It’s 2-2, you’ve got to make the better play in your own zone when you know McDavid’s on the ice,” Sutter said.

“I went D-to-D with [Weegar], he tried to make a play to the middle,” Tanev said. "It deflected, I think, right back into the slot.”

A second misfortunate instance of puck luck for Calgary happened a few minutes later with them pressing for the equalizer. With an opportunity to tie the game, Jonathan Huberdeau was fed an opportunity in the slot, but could not get his stick on the rubber. Minutes later, the game was over.

“Obviously I would like to have that one back, but I feel right now, that’s kind of how it’s going,” Huberdeau said. "I’ve got to be better and bury that.”

Sutter agreed with his star.

“They’ve got to score that third goal at some point,” the coach said, when asked of the play of Calgary’s top line of Huberdeau, Elias Lindholm, and Tyler Toffoli.

On Saturday night, Edmonton had the clear edge in goaltending and their stars outperformed Calgary’s top players. Despite that, the Flames held their own and kept themselves in the game until the end. Their depth shone, with Brett Ritchie and Mikael Backlund finding the back of the net, and the Flames did look structured defensively for most of the game.

Now, the onus is on Calgary’s top forwards, particularly the top line, to find their game. So far, Huberdeau, Lindholm, and Toffoli have yet to score at five-on-five. Huberdeau acknowledged as much when talking about his chance late in the game - and just how close Calgary was to coming away with the victory.

“A couple of bad bounces at the end, and obviously the best player took advantage,” Huberdeau said.

The Flames and Oilers meet for the final time in the regular season on Dec. 27.