Oilers cash in on late power play to burn Flames 2-1
Connor McDavid's league-leading 31st goal to extend his point streak to 16 games was the winner on Tuesday as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 2-1.
Tyson Barrie with his 100th career goal also scored for Edmonton (19-15-2), which leap frogs Calgary to move back into the second wild-card spot in the NHL's Western Conference.
Mikael Backlund scored the lone goal for Calgary (16-13-7), which had its four-game points streak snapped. Backlund also put a shot off the goalpost in the game's waning seconds as the Flames pressed for the equalizer.
Stuart Skinner was superb in net for Edmonton, making 47 stops and continuing his mastery of the Flames this season. In winning twice to go along with a perfect relief appearance in the teams' other head-to-head meeting, Skinner has stopped 138-of-141 shots. On the season, he's 11-9-1.
At the other end, Jacob Markstrom had 20 stops. He falls to 15-15-2.
Tied 1-1, Edmonton got its third power play of the night at 7:15 of the third period when Andrew Mangiapane took his second offensive zone penalty. He was whistled for holding when he reached around with his glove and grabbed Darnell Nurse while trying to beat the defenceman to a puck in the Oilers' corner.
Stymied on their first two man advantages, it took just 13 seconds for Edmonton to convert with McDavid taking a pass from Leon Draisaitl from the middle of the slot, whipping a wrist shot past Markstrom's glove.
McDavid's 16-game point spree (15 goals, 17 assists) is the longest active streak in the NHL and one short of his career high.
After a scoreless opening period, Calgary struck first when Backlund buried Blake Coleman's rebound at 1:12.
The lead was short-lived with the Oilers pulling even at 4:58. Kailer Yamamoto fed the puck back to the blue line where Barrie's slap shot through a maze of sticks and bodies eluded a screened Markstrom.
Two minutes after tying it, Edmonton had its first chance to take the lead but on its second man-advantage of the game, Draisaitl was stopped three times, including twice on his patented one-time snapshot from the faceoff dot.
Draisaitl, eighth in the NHL with 21 goals, has gone six games without a goal, which is the longest drought since an eight-game goalless stretch Feb. 19 to March 6, 2021.
Calgary finished 0-for-1 on the power play' while the Oilers went 1-for-3.
LETHAL POWER PLAY
Edmonton entered the night with the NHL's No. 1 ranked power play at 32.3 per cent, which includes a scorching 18-for-43 (41.8 per cent) over the prior 12 games.
The NHL's all-time best PP mark belongs to the Montreal Canadiens, who finished at 31.9 per cent in 1977-78. Calgary, entered the game as the league's most penalized team having been short-handed 135 times.
BATTLE OF ALBERTA OVER
Coming off their first post-season meeting since 1991, the Flames and Oilers only meet three times this season and the season series is now over with Edmonton taking two of the three games. They had split their two games in October, each winning in the other team's building.
UP NEXT
Oilers: Head to Seattle to take on the Kraken on Friday.
Flames: Are right back in action on Wednesday in Seattle.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.