The Game Rush: Flames vs. Oilers

An in-depth look at the Flames-Oilers tilt

Tuesday, 26.10.2010 / 9:10 PM / News
By Kristi Hennessy
The Calgary Flames dominated the Edmonton Oilers in the first two periods of the Battle of Alberta Tuesday night but it was the third period that forced fans to the edge of their seats.

17 shots on net were posted on the scoreboard by the Oilers in the final frame as were goals by Magnus Paajarvi and Tom Gilbert to tie the game at 4-4 and force an overtime.

Nothing was solved in the five minute overtime which brought us to a shootout. It was Alex Tanguay who played hero with the lone shootout goal on Nikolai Khabibulin sealing the 5-4 victory for the Flames.

Brendan Morrison scored once on the powerplay and once on a shorthanded breakaway opportunity. Jay Bouwmeester and Curtis Glencross also recorded goals in the 5-4 win over the Oilers.

After two periods of play, the Flames and their fans thought they were going to be walking away with an easy victory over their Northwest Division rivals. This was not the case as the third period was a completely different game and the Flames were not on the dominating side.

The Oilers tallied 17 shots on net in the final frame and picked up two even strength goals to tie the game at 4-4 by the midway mark. Their momentum kept coming as the young guns forced overtime and picked up a point.

Nothing was solved on the 4-on-4 so this one had to be determined by a shootout. Alex Tanguay had the lone shootout goal beating Khabibulin with a hard wrist shot.


With Steve Staios in the box for interference at 9:40 of the second period, the Flames got a lucky bounce on the face-off. The puck jumped over the stick of Ryan Whitney and Brendan Morrison was there to snatch it up and make a run at the Oilers net.

He charged in on Nikolai Khabibulin all alone and made no mistake firing a hard shot into the back of the net to give the Flames the 4-1 lead.

Brendan Morrison  was on his game tonight as he picked up the Flames first and fourth goals of the game tonight. The first goal came on the powerplay just 5:52 into the first frame. Mark Giordano dished a nice pass onto Morrison's stick who fired a hard wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

In the second period, Morrison was robbed on a shorthanded break-away however at 9:48 on the powerplay, Morrison picked up his second of the night and third of the season again on a breakaway. He made no mistake the second time around to give the Flames the 4-1 lead. Morrison also went 80% in the face-off circle and had four shots on net.

Olli Jokinen played his 900th career game tonight while Tim Jackman played his 200th career game. Craig Conroy played his 999, with his 1000th game scheduled for Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche.

"It hasn't been the strongest part of my game. It's one thing we talked about after last year, we need every point that we can get so I've tried to get better at it and practice a little more than I had been" - Kiprusoff on the shootout part of his game.

We gave them a little life there in the third period. I thought we were right in control of it. We had some powerplays and had a chance to make it a four goal game. But they got the one by Eberle that made it 4-2 and gave them some life. It's a learning experience and it's still a very important win for us and we'll learn from it." - Iginla on the shootout win.



Thursday, Oct 28th vs Colorado
  7:30 PM MT (TSN (HD), FAN 960)

 The Flames will host the Colorado Avalanche in the first of six meetings this season on Thursday night in the Scotiabank Saddledome. The 3-4-1-1 Avalanche are coming off of a 4-3 OT loss to the Canucks in Vancouver on Tuesday night.

The Avs will be playing without their captain Adam Foote (head injury) as he did not make the road trip. They will also be withouth their starting goaltender Craig Anderson as he suffered a knee injury in warm up Tuesday night in Vancouver and has returned to Denver for tests.

The Avs and Flames can be seen on TSN (HD) and is on The Fan 960 radio. Puck will drop at 7:30 pm MT.
7 Points for Rene Bourque in four games last week to earn himself the NHL first star.
1032 Games as a Flame for Jarome Iginla.
388 Games as a Flame for Daymond Langkow.
34 Miikka Kiprusoff turned 34 years old today, just like his number.
25:48 Average minutes played by Jay Bouwmeester per game. 9th in the NHL in minutes played.

1st Star
Brendan Morrison
G A P +/- Shots
1 1 2 E 8
2nd Star
Alex Tanguay
G A P +/- Shots
0 1 1 -1 0
3rd Star
Curtis Glencross
G A P +/- Shots
1 0 1 +1 4

OILERS
Nikolai Khabibulin
SA SV GA TOI SV%
39 35 4 64:58 .897
FLAMES
Miikka Kiprusoff
SA SV GA TOI SV%
32 28 4 64:16 .875

Author: Kristi Hennessy/ calgaryflames.com