Connor McDavid and company get best of better Flames with 4-2 victory in series finale
Only one of the two teams in Saturday night’s Battle of Alberta is going to the playoffs. But you wouldn’t know it from the type of game the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers played on Hockey Night in Canada.
The Oilers — who punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs this week and are flirting with first place in the Pacific Division —came away with a 4-2 win to claim the season series three games to one. The Flames, however, played a feisty game that once again showed they can hang with the best the NHL has to offer when they collectively compete.
It’s too bad they didn’t do it more often. Especially against the league’s less spirited squads.
Saturday’s loss to the Oilers also showed … again … how the Flames’ lack of finish will likely continue to haunt them until they manage to sign or develop a true gamebreaker.
And, yes, that could take some time.
They may draft higher than they have in franchise history if the losses continue over the final half-dozen games. Even a high first-round pick, though, is far from a guarantee for immediate impact.
They may attempt to use their draft capital to trade for a promising youngster. Of course, those kinds of players aren’t often up for grabs.
Free agency could offer some value but, realistically, isn’t going to move the needle for the rebuilding … ahem, retooling … Calgary Flames over the next year or two.
In the meantime, more games like the one watched by a sellout crowd at the Saddledome should at least keep the Flames fans happy.
The effort was there. Through the first two periods, the Flames tested Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard with 27 shots while limiting Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company to 17 of their own.
They trailed 2-0 early in the second period with Draisaitl scoring his 40th of the season on a late first-period powerplay and Connor Brown netting his fourth 3:13 into the middle frame.
Yegor Sharangovich — one of the team’s key young players having a stellar season — cut the lead to one less than a minute later with his 30th of the season while the Flames were on the man-advantage.
Veteran Nazem Kadri scored his 25th of the year (also on the powerplay) to tie things up briefly in the third period before Evan Bouchard blasted in the winning goal from the point, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored into an empty net to lock it down inside the final minute of regulation.
“I thought we battled hard,” said Flames winger Jonathan Huberdeau. “I thought we deserved better tonight.
“We came up short, but I thought we were the better team tonight.”
