The Battle of Alberta has long been a fierce test for the Edmonton Oilers, but they passed their most recent one with flying colors. Despite a slow-ish start to the game, the Oilers picked up speed as they went along and earned a 4-0 win when all was said and done.
My four takeaways can be found below.
If you're a fan of forechecking hockey, this was the game for you
I'm going to talk more about Calgary's forecheck and how Edmonton fared against it in the next takeaway, but Edmonton had their own success on the forecheck on Wednesday.
In fact, I'll go as far as to say that it played a part in their ability to shift momentum and create scoring opportunities. Early in the second period, Connor McDavid was able to create a scoring chance off a check along the boards. Another defensive slip up allowed the Oilers to pressure the Flames deep in their own end, though Calgary was able to withstand the pressure after a few seconds.
The Oilers also did quite well pressuring the Flames goaltenders and making them get rid of the puck quickly. They got home on one of their clearing attempts, though they couldn't turn it around in time to create a legitimate scoring opportunity.
Even though the Flames controlled much of the first period and put some more sustained offensive pressure on the board midway through the period, Edmonton effectively countered Calgary in terms of the forecheck.
Does the early goal negate Calgary's early control?
I wouldn't say that it does.
Sure, Mathieu Joseph scored his third goal of the season to give Edmonton the early 1-0 lead. But besides that goal and a few chances from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Edmonton got quite lucky throughout the opening period of the hockey game.
And if not for Tristan Jarry, the first period could easily have ended with Calgary in the lead. Calgary's forecheck made life quite difficult for the Oilers' defensemen when they tried to get out of their own end, leading to a handful of sustained possessions in the Edmonton zone. And when the Oilers couldn't create scoring chances of their own, the Flames were at least getting the puck up the ice.
With seven minutes left in the period, Ryan Strome pushed the issue even further when he won a one-on-one footrace to create a breakaway of sorts.
The good news is that Jarry made the stop.
From there, Edmonton would find a little bit of room to control the game, but it was not a great first period in that regard.
Wednesday's Battle of Alberta was a two-on-one goaltending battle that Jarry won handily
Though Devin Cooley's exit represented a boost of sorts for the Oilers, Dustin Wolf didn't give them much in the way of goalscoring opportunities.
Cooley's 20 minutes of action saw him give up just one goal on nine shots on target. Though Wolf gave up a goal on one of the first few shots that he faced, Edmonton could not get any dangerous scoring opportunities towards the Flames' net for much of the final 40 minutes. Edmonton eventually broke through in the third period to seal the victory, and there wasn't much the Calgary goaltending could do to get their team back into it.
Outside of the third period, the same was true for the Oilers. The first few minutes of the opening period saw Jarry make a few last-line-of-defense stops to keep the Flames from scoring the first goal, and he would come up with some big saves at several additional points later on in the game.
The win represented Edmonton's first shutout of the season, and it came in relatively-convincing fashion.
Power play still humming despite downturn in form
The Oilers' power play might not be scoring three goals every game, but it is still quite active. Kasperi Kapanen's third-period power-play goal against Calgary extended Edmonton's streak of consecutive power-play goals to seven; the last game the Oilers didn't score a power-play goal was the first leg of their two-game series against the Utah Mammoth.
The power play also helped to spark the Oilers' offense; just 21 seconds after the 3-0 goal, Alex Formenton scored his second of the season off an assist from Jason Dickinson and a whiffed clearing attempt from Calgary. Conveniently, said clearing attempt was deep in Calgary's end.
Quick note
While he didn't score against Calgary, Nugent-Hopkins' performance cannot go unnoticed. He recorded two assists, a +1 +/- rating, two blocks, and a pair of shots on goal in what was an all-around performance from the longtime Oiler.
Nugent-Hopkins is one of the league's top two-way forwards, and he proved that on Wednesday.
What's next?
Edmonton's five-game homestand saw them record a 3-1-1 record. While their home record sits at a good-but-could-be-better 4-2-2 mark, the Oilers are still 5-0-0 through their first five road contests of the season. They'll look to make it 6-0-0 when they kick off an East Coast trip on Halloween against the New York Islanders. The Oilers will be starting that game in the early afternoon time slot, with puck drop scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
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