CENOVUS GAME STORY

Under the Scope: Oilers vs. Flames

An in-depth look at Saturday's 2-1 pre-season victory over the Calgary Flames

Saturday, 24.09.2011 / 7:47 PM / Cenovus Game Story
By Marc Ciampa  - edmontonoilers.com



The Edmonton Oilers scored a pair of late goals - one near the end of the second period and one near the end of the third - to dispose of the Calgary Flames by a score of 2-1 on Saturday night.

The Flames struck first 8:17 into the second period as Rene Bourque scored to put the visitors up by a goal. The game would stay 1-0 until 7.8 seconds remained in the middle frame. At that time, Ryan Jones beat Lee Stempniak in a foot race for the puck and broke in alone on Flames netminder Leland Irving. He went from the forehand to the backhand before slipping the puck through the five hole to tie the game at 1-1.

Taylor Hall added the game-winning goal with 1:17 to play in the third. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up the puck on the side boards and spun into the high slot. His shot was tipped on its way to the net but Taylor Hall was in front to whack at the rolling puck as it got past Flames netminder Leland Irving.


All you need to know and more as we go Under the Scope:


With time winding down in the third period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up the puck on the side boards and spun into the high slot. His shot was tipped on its way to the net but Taylor Hall was in front to whack at the rolling puck as it got past Flames netminder Leland Irving.
71 Success-rate percentage for Oilers centre Eric Belanger in the face-off dot on the night. He had 10 wins and 4 losses.
56 Success-rate in the face-off circle for the Oilers entire team, going 27-for-48 on the night.
4 Number of shots on goal for both Cam Barker and Tyler Pitlick. Teemu Hartikainen also had four hits on the night.
2 The number of shots on goal the Flames were able to generate over three power plays in 5:39 of man advantage time. They did not score a powerplay goal.
 


Teemu Hartikainen
G A P +/- Shots
0 0 0 E 3


Leland Irving
SA SV GA TOI SV%
29 27 2 59:05 .931
 


Taylor Hall
G A P +/- Shots
1 0 1 E 3



 
FLAMES
Leland Irving
SA SV GA TOI SV%
29 27 2 59:05 .931
OILERS
Nikolai Khabibulin
SA SV GA TOI SV%
17 16 1 60:00 .941



 
FLAMES
Mark Giordano - D

24:14 - 0 PTS, -2 rating
OILERS
Tom Gilbert - D

22:42 - 0 PTS, E rating


While shorthanded late in the second period, Ryan Jones beats Lee Stempniak in a foot race for the puck and broke in alone on Flames netminder Leland Irving. He went from the forehand to the backhand before slipping the puck through the five hole to tie the game at 1-1.

Teemu Hartikainen didn't show up on the scoresheet but he did all the right things en route to being named the game's first star. Hartikainen had four big hits - the most on either side - and three shots on goal in 17:09 of ice time while playing alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall on the team's top line.

Nikolai Khabibulin wasn't overly busy with only 17 shots on goal but he made plenty of big stops, many of them timely, to keep the Oilers close in a 2-1 game. Most notably, he made a brilliant save off Greg Nemisz with about 11 minutes to play in the third, flashing the glove and knocking the puck out of harm's way.



The Oilers are 1-1-0 in the pre-season when goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin starts a game. Khabibulin himself has a 1-0-0 record between the pipes in the 2011 pre-season.
 


"I spent most of the night just trying to get open for him. As the game went on, we had a lot more chances, a product of not playing together before. It was a lot of fun."

-- Taylor Hall on playing tonight on a line with fellow first-overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins


Sunday, September 25 at Calgary
 6:00pm MDT (SNET-W / 630 CHED)


The Oilers zip out to Calgary for a game at the Saddledome tomorrow night.  Catch the Northwest Division pre-season match-up Saturday night on Rogers Sportsnet West at 6:00pm MDT.