CALGARY – It’s a rare night when the Calgary Flames can keep both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in check.
Instead, they were beaten by Lady Luck.
On a night in which the Battle of Alberta was rightfully fit to be tied heading onto the final period, it was a trio of fortuitous bounces that conspired to give Edmonton the win.
A Sam Gagner centring pass early in the third period from behind the net caromed off Rasmus Andersson, hit the side of Dan Vladar’s catching mitt and bounced in off the post to put the Oilers up 2-1.
Unlike snooker, they count whether you call the shot or not.
It stood as the winner in a 3-1 game that gave the Oilers a Canadian franchise record 13th-straight win – a run you don’t go on without a few big breaks.
“That’s the part that stings a little bit more – that’s a tough one,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska of the backbreaker.
“Vladdy made a lot of great saves tonight, and sometimes when a team is rolling the way they are they’re going to get bounces like that.
“Unfortunately that one went against us tonight.
“You can’t fault him at all, he was excellent tonight.”
Making his third start in a row for the injured Jacob Markstrom, Vladar was clearly the game’s first star, framing several of his 30 stops as highlight reel material.
Yet, as has been the case for the last baker’s dozen of netminders to face the world’s hottest club, there was Vladar, hanging his head afterwards.
“Just a bad bounce, frustrating for me,” said Vladar, whose lunging glove save on Connor Brown early in the evening sent an already raucous blue and red crowd into a tizzy.
“Lately it seems I’m getting bad bounces… and today it was the deciding goal.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if it’s 8-1 or 2-1 or 1-0. It’s still a loss for us.
“I think we deserved at least one point.
“I’ve just got to trust my process and do everything I can to not let those in… and just pray.”
You can’t argue Calgary was the better team.
They did plenty of watching in the first period, and have Vladar to thank for limiting the damage to a Ryan McLeod goal.
But given the way MacKenzie Weegar was able to tie it early in the second period with a tremendous bounce back, you can argue the hosts didn’t deserve to lose on a goal like that.
But that’s the way it seems to go almost every time they’ve played since Edmonton mopped up Calgary in the 2022 playoffs.
“It’s two (losses) in a row, and a team we need to start beating – it’s just getting old,” lamented Blake Coleman after the Flames’ fourth straight inter-provincial loss.
“Tough bounce, but I thought he played a hell of a game and we didn’t do enough in front of him to reward him for his performance.
“We didn’t make life hard enough on their goalie in my opinion.”
Nobody was harder on himself and his team than Weegar,
“Battle of Alberta, there wasn’t much battle tonight from us,” said the Flames defender who completed a beauty pass from Coleman for his 10th of the year.
“I thought we got out-competed.
“I thought there would have been a little more pride from us.
“That’s a big game.
“They’re coming into our territory, our city.
“I thought we would have had a little more juice there.”
“Right now that should sting.”
He went on to point out some of the lads could learn from age-old Flames like Mikael Backlund, in terms of finding that fire in their belly to hate the Oilers more.
Perhaps the night was best summed up in the final minute when Zach Hyman outraced and outcompeted Rasmus Andersson for a loose puck, took the puck behind Calgary’s net and wrapped it in as Weegar tried swatting it away.
He simply wanted it more.
Adam Klapka’s NHL debut saw him lead all forwards with four hits in just six minutes of play, while Matt Coronato’s return to the big club saw him hit the net twice.
Backlund’s line did a phenomenal job limiting McDavid and Draisaitl to a combined two shots on goal, yet the surging visitors still found a way to pull out the win.
“That’s the other thing, when you lose and you keep them off the scoresheet – that’s a tough one,” said Huska, whose club didn’t do enough to test Stuart Skinner, who stopped 26 shots.
“This was one where I felt a bounce here or there and it could have gone our way tonight.”
