Battle of Alberta Game 1 sees Oilers lose 9-6 to Flames

The Calgary Flames staved off an Edmonton Oilers comeback try for a 9-6 win in Recreation 1 of their best-of-seven collection.

The Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead with two targets within the first 51 seconds.

Elias Lindholm beat Mike Smith with an extended wrist shot, then Andrew Mangiapane put a shot from shut vary in off the put up. Brett Ritchie scored off a turnover 6:05 into the sport, chasing Smith from the sport after permitting three targets on 10 photographs.

Connor McDavid slid a puck underneath Jacob Markstrom, however the Oilers had been badly outplayed within the first.

The Flames had been up 3-1 after the primary interval and had a 19-7 benefit in photographs.

The onslaught continued within the second with Blake Coleman flipping in a rebound to make it 4-1 simply 45 seconds into the session.

Coleman made it 5-1 earlier than Evan Bouchard completed off a feed from McDavid.

It grew to become 6-2 when Matthew Tkachuk batted a puck out of the air on the facility play. Zach Hyman fooled Markstrom from a pointy angle because the groups mixed for 9 targets earlier than the sport was half-hour previous.

Hyman scored once more with 5:54 left within the second, then Leon Draisaitl struck on a partial breakaway within the last minute to tug Edmonton inside a objective.

Kailer Yamamoto stuffed in a rebound early within the third, however Rasmus Andersson got here proper again for the Flames to make it 7-6 Calgary.

Tkachuk took benefit of an Oilers turnover to attain on a breakaway with 11:05 to go. He added an empty netter to finish the hat trick.

McDavid completed with 4 factors. Koskinen stopped 32 of 37 photographs.

Recreation two is Friday (630 CHED, Face-off Present begins at 6 p.m., the sport begins at 8:30 p.m.)