Wednesday's NHL: Flames outlast Oilers 9-6, most postseason goals in 29 years
Calgary, Alberta — The first Battle of Alberta in the playoffs in 31 years didn’t disappoint.
The Calgary Flames got a hat trick from Matthew Tkachuk to outlast the Edmonton Oilers 9-6 and grab Game 1 of the second round series Wednesday night after a blistering game that saw the most goals in a postseason game in 29 years.
“Strange game,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “We scored on our first two shots and there were probably six different games out there. Take the win. Move on.”
Blake Coleman scored twice for the Flames. Rasmus Andersson and Andrew Mangiapane each had a goal and two assists, and Elias Lindholm and Brett Ritchie also scored. Jacob Markstrom stopped 22 shots for the win.
Zach Hyman scored twice for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists for his fourth straight multi-point game in the playoffs. McDavid leads the league’s postseason points race with five goals and 13 assists. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists and Kailer Yamamoto and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Oilers.
Edmonton starter Mike Smith was pulled in the first period after allowing three goals on 10 shots. Mikko Koskinen made 32 saves in relief.
“We fought back and made it a game, but we can’t feel good about that in any way because we scored six goals in game and found a way to not win it,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said.
The winner of the best-of-seven series advances to the Western Conference final. Game 2 is Friday at the Saddledome before the series heads to Edmonton for Sunday’s Game 3 and Tuesday’s Game 4.
It was the highest scoring postseason game since Los Angeles beat Calgary 9-6 in the 1993 division semifinals.
In a matchup of potent offenses, the Flames scored twice in a 25-second span in the first minute and led 3-0 by 6:05 when Smith was replaced by Koskinen. Calgary’s two goals in the opening 51 seconds was the fastest two goals to start an NHL playoff game, and electrified a sea of red dotted with Oilers orange and blue at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“Couldn’t ask for a better start, but you’ve got to have that killer mindset and you’ve got to be able to put teams down and keep pushing them down,” Coleman said. “We made some mental mistakes in the second period, got away from our checking game a little bit. The good news is it’s correctable.
“That’s not our style of game, 9-6. It’s great that we got the Game 1 win but there’s a lot to dissect here.”
The Oilers did not go quietly, however. The Flames held a 40-18 edge in shots after two periods, but led 6-5 heading to the third.
Yamamoto briefly tied the game at 1:28 of the final period, putting McDavid’s rebound over Markstrom’s outstretched pad.
Andersson regained the lead for Calgary at 2:57 after getting a pass from Mangiapane from behind the net. Tkachuk made it 8-6 at 8:55 with his second of the night and scored into an empty net to complete his first postseason hat trick.
Hats rained down onto the Saddledome ice and chants of “we want 10” goals soon followed.
“Not good. Not good at all,” Tkachuk said. “Probably our worst game of the playoffs so far. We got super-lucky. ... That’s just not the recipe for success. Maybe we win this one, but we’re not going to win many more if we’re going to play like that.”
More games
(At) Carolina 2, N.Y. Rangers 1 (OT): Ian Cole beat Igor Shesterkin at 3:12 of overtime to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 2-1 Wednesday night and take Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.
The defenseman’s second career playoff goal capped a late comeback by the Hurricanes after they trailed most of the night. Sebastian Aho finally pushed one past Shesterkin in the final minutes of the third period to send the game into OT.
Then came Cole’s rebound shot, which clipped the stick of Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren to change direction on the way toward the net before slipping past Shesterkin to end this one.
Carolina also got a key effort from Antti Raanta, who had 27 saves and helped the Hurricanes hang around as the Rangers controlled play through the first two periods.
The Hurricanes won home-ice by claiming the Metropolitan Division title, secured with a win against the Rangers in Madison Square Garden in the final week of the regular season. They nearly handed it over to the Rangers on the series’ opening night, but now will look for a sixth straight home win this postseason when they host Game 2 on Friday night.
Filip Chytil scored a first-period goal for the Rangers, while Shesterkin finished with 24 saves.
Both teams advanced through grueling seven-game first-round series, first with Carolina finally getting past Boston on Saturday followed by New York rallying past Pittsburgh in overtime a day later.
The Hurricanes never trailed in their series nor in their four home wins. The Rangers had to rally from a 3-1 series deficit with three straight wins, which included Shesterkin – finalist for the Vezina Trophy for league’s top goalie and Hart Trophy for league MVP – bouncing back from surrendering 10 goals in Games 3 and 4.
Yet when this one started, it was the Hurricanes who looked a step slow while the Rangers moved the puck effectively and gave up few quality chances.
And the Rangers were also opportunistic at the perfect moment to seize early momentum.
As defenseman Tony DeAngelo tried to send the puck back to teammate Jaccob Slavin for a reset, Rangers forward Alexis Lafrenière stole the pass to lead a 3-on-2 rush. Lafrenière passed to Chytil, who one-timed the puck from the right side past the extended stick of Slavin and Raanta at 7:07 of the first.
That score held up for the Rangers nearly the rest of the night until the Hurricanes finally showed an urgent third-period edge to build some momentum. They even twice got pucks past Shesterkin only to ping the crossbar, first on a breakaway by Nino Niederreiter and later from Aho.
But Aho responded less than 30 seconds later to finally find the net, taking a feed from rookie Seth Jarvis and then going to his backhand side. Shesterkin made the initial stop, but Aho knocked the rebound across for the tying score with 2:23 left in the third.
Retired Hurricanes defenseman Sean Hill, part of the team’s run to the Cup final in 2002, sounded the pregame “storm warning” siren for the team to take the ice.
Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson and Raleigh-born PGA Tour golfer Chesson Hadley sounded the siren for the first and second intermissions, respectively.