2010 Compuware NHL Premier Series – Edmonton Oilers thrash Calgary Flames 4-0
As part of the 5th match of the NHL regular season, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Calgary Flames on Thursday in front of a strong 19,000 crowd gathered at the Rexall Place. The match was expected to be one of the offense battle and surely turned
out to be one. Both teams came up with massive shots on goal during the match and the Edmonton Oilers proved to be the most productive, scoring 4 goals.
1st Period
The Edmonton Oilers were a little reluctant to go on the attack in the beginning. Keeping this in mind, the Calgary Flames came up with extravagant plays that gave them 3 open chances to score, but they were unsuccessful in converting any.
The Calgary Flames were looking to score and in their hunt for a goal, they left open spaces at the back. They were caught napping by the Edmonton Oilers in the 10th minute when they scored and took the lead. The goal came through Gilbert Brule,
who hit a splendid shot from 27 feet.
Both teams got their chances after the goal but weren’t able to convert any. The period came to an end with 1-0 in favour of the Oilers. The Edmonton Oilers managed to score once out of as many as 19 goal attempts! Contrary to that, the Calgary Flames were
able to stack up just 9 shots out of which none was able to find its way past the opposing goal keeper.
2nd Period
The 2nd period saw a change in momentum and the Calgary Flames came out aggressively, taking on the Edmonton Oilers defence with 1-0 on the scoreboard.
The Edmonton Oilers had resisted their attacks and had maintained a good defence in the 1st period. However, during the course of the 2nd period, the Oilers just didn’t look like the same team. Mistakes were seen at crucial junctures
of the match but the Calgary Flames were unable to punish them. The Flames continued their search for a goal but were unsuccessful in doing so.
The Edmonton Oilers had their chances in the middle part of the period but they too couldn’t convert any chances into goals. The period was mostly dominated by the Calgary Flames who were able to make a number of goal attempts every now and then. They came
close to scoring in the 15th minute through a brilliant shot by Ryan Jones that just went wide of the goal. The defence framework that the Calgary Flames came up with in the 2nd period played a great role in restricting the Oilers. As
a result, they reduced Edmonton to few attacks and fewer goal attempts.
The whistle for the end of the period blew with the score still 1-0 in favour of the Edmonton Oilers. Statistics post Period 2 showed that the Edmonton Oilers made 7 unsuccessful goal attempts. The Calgary Flames on the other hand made 18 goal attempts but
to everybody’s amazement, they didn’t score even once.
3rd Period
When the 3rd period began, the momentum once again looked to have shifted with the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton fans cheered the home team and they responded to the call with a goal in the 2nd minute of the last period. The breakthrough
was provided by Jordan Eberle’s backhand shot from 8 feet.
With 2 goals to their advantage, the Edmonton Oilers were looking in a comfortable position. However, they kept on searching for another goal. Their search was turned into success when Ales Hemsky scored from 36 feet in the 3rd minute. This took
the score to 3-0 for the Edmonton Oilers and their fans went wild.
For a short period, the Calgary Flames responded to the sudden and fast attacks of the Edmonton Oilers. But this was all of no use as the home team scored once again in the 6th minute through Captain Shawn Horcoff.
The game ended with Edmonton Oilers winning the game 4-0. Both teams made 9 goal attempts in the last period but the Edmonton Oilers scored 3 times and ran away with the match.
"The fans came to see a glimpse of the future and they got it," claimed new captain Shane Horcoff after the Oilers delighted the sell out crowd of 16,839 at Rexall Place by beating the Flames for the first time since April 10, 2009. "I can't think of another
thing you could have added to make it a better scenario.
"It was impressive. The effort was there tonight. That's our focus here. We're building toward something and the only way to do that is through effort and work."
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