After 31 years of lying dormant, the 2022 edition of the Battle of Alberta has more than lived up to the hype. And that excitement hit new levels in the second period of Game 5.
The two teams combined for seven goals in the frame, including a frantic stretch with four goals in 71 seconds. That sequence — which saw each team score twice to tie the game at 4-4 — set an NHL record for the fastest four goals in a playoff game, smashing the previous record by 22 seconds.
The historic stretch began with Zach Hyman burying his eighth of the playoffs on the power play to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead. Hyman used a familiar tactic on the goal, hiding behind Jacob Markstrom and collecting a laser pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to score into the empty net.
Leon Draisaitl picked up the secondary assist on the goal, his second assist of the game. The points gave him 50 career playoff points in just 33 games — the fourth-fastest in NHL history behind only Wayne Gretzky, Barry Pederson and Mario Lemieux.
The Oilers’ lead was short-lived. Just 15 seconds later, Johnny Gaudreau walked out from behind the net and fired a shot short-side to score his first of the series and tie the game.
Then, just 16 seconds after that, Calle Jarnkrok scored short-side on Mike Smith for his first goal with the Flames — a stretch of 29 games dating back to his trade from the Seattle Kraken on March 16.
Jarnkrok’s goal gave the Flames a 4-3 lead, but as we’ve seen all series, no lead is safe. And sure enough, the Oilers stormed back to tie the game off an Evan Bouchard bomb from the point set up by — who else? — Leon Draisaitl. The assist gave Draisaitl 16 points in the series, the most in a Battle of Alberta and breaking Gretzky’s record of 14 from 1983.
Draisaitl’s three assists give him 25 points in these playoffs to tie Connor McDavid for the league lead. Which leads us to what just might be the most remarkable stat of this game: McDavid did not record a single point through the first two periods.
Easy to imagine that will change in the final frame.
