Edmonton Oilers destroy Calgary Flames 6-1 on the road - NHL Update
The Edmonton Oilers completely destroyed the Calgary Flames and this author’s prediction with a huge 6-1 victory on the road.
A packed ScotiaBank Saddledome could only look on in horror as the struggling Edmonton Oilers gave a lesson in how to play hockey to the playoff chasing Calgary Flames.
No one had expected the Oilers to win this encounter at the home of the Flames where they had not won since the last 10 games but Edmonton showed that they still have a fight left in them.
Outshooting the hosts 42-22, the Oilers put in a performance many expected from the playoff chasing Flames.
Left wing Taylor Hall after the game told reporters that the Oilers were looking to do something like this to another team for a long time.
"Even though they got the first goal of the game, we set the tempo right off the bat, first shift. All four lines had a great first shift and from there, we kept going. I think we took note of what a couple of teams have done to us in the first couple minutes
in our building, and we wanted to do that tonight and we did."
For Calgary it was a shocking result.
Before the game they were looking to move into the playoff spots after getting themselves right in contention for eighth spot on the back of some big results this month.
The defeat leaves them ninth in the Western Conference just one point behind eighth placed Los Angeles Kings.
Captain Jarome Iginla was visibly disappointed by the result and said that everyone in the line up performed poorly except the goaltenders.
"It was a terrible game for us. Our goaltending was very good again but we were just extremely flat. We weren't very sharp at all,"
Calgary took the lead nine minutes into the first period through Scott Hannan but that is where the positivity ended for the hosts.
Edmonton outshot the Flames by a huge 17-7 margin with only Miikka Kiprusoff keeping their rampant offence at bay.
However, the Oilers equalised at 18:48 after finally beating Kiprusoff. Jordan Eberle did the honours and from that point onwards Edmonton never looked back.
The Oilers scored four times in the second period in a span of ten minutes to put the game out of all doubt.
Ales Hemsky, Eric Belanger, Sam Gagner and Ryan Smyth got on the score sheet with the Flames unable to keep pace with the rapid Edmonton attacks.
Taylor Hall’s third period power play goal late in the third period increased Calgary’s misery and the players looked as if they wanted to get off the rink as fast as possible.
Edmonton will look to build on this win on Thursday, when they face the Philadelphia Flyers. Calgary though will be hoping to bounce back from this humiliation against the Phoenix Coyotes.
Tags: