In Calgary, Connor McDavid scored with five minutes gone in overtime on Thursday night to give the Edmonton Oilers a 5-4 win over the Flames, and a 4-1 series win.

“He’s everything to us,” the Oilers Leon Draisaitl said. “He’s our leader, he’s our go-to guy. He’s the guy that everyone looks up to when you need him. He’s done it all season, he’s done it all his career. Last two months or last month or whatever it has been, he’s been amazing for us. Eventually you just kind of run out of words.”

Mike Smith made 32 saves in the Oilers win.

“We’re only halfway, but it feels good to take that next step for now,” Draisaitl said. “It feels good to see we grow as a team, we grow as an organization. I’m really proud of the guys. This was a hard series. That’s a really good team over there and they made it hard on us and they pushed back, and we had to push back twice as hard. Great job by everyone.”

Edmonton will await the winner of the Colorado Avalanche and St Louis Blues second round series.

Mikael Backlund had a goal and two points for Calgary.

“Right now, it’s just all disappointment, frustration, upset,” Backlund said. “We had a great team. A great group of guys. Proud of all the guys and would go to war with all the guys again. It just didn’t finish the way we wanted.”

Andrew Mangiapane scored in the first period, and Backlund scored in the middle frame to give Calgary a 2-0 lead.

The Oilers outscored the Flames, 4-3, in the second period.

“They just made plays in key moments of games, and we didn’t,” Calgary forward Blake Coleman said. “You look at a lot of the games, they were tight in the third and we just couldn’t come up with that big play to put us over the hump in the last couple of games.

“It’s such a small margin of error at this time of year, and that’s part of the learning curve and the growth is learning how to win tight games and being a really difficult team in important situations.”

Edmonton rallied to tie the game off strikes from Darnell Nurse and Jesse Puljujarvi

“They just made plays in key moments of games, and we didn’t,” Calgary forward Blake Coleman said. “You look at a lot of the games, they were tight in the third and we just couldn’t come up with that big play to put us over the hump in the last couple of games.

“It’s such a small margin of error at this time of year, and that’s part of the learning curve and the growth is learning how to win tight games and being a really difficult team in important situations.”

Zach Hyman put the Oilers ahead, 3-2,

Johnny Gaudreau hit for a tying goal just 15 seconds for Calgary, and Calle Jarnkrok restored the Flames lead, 4-3.

Evan Bouchard tied the game, 4-4, with just under four minutes left in the period.

Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves in the Flames loss.

In Calgary, Evander Kane  hit for a natural hat trick in the middle frame on Sunday, and the Edmonton Oilers downed the Flames, 4-1.“It was a lot of fun, it was good to come back home and play these guys on our home ice,” Kane said. “I thought we came out with a really good start and it was a good win for our group.”

The Game 3 win gives the Oilers a 2-1 series lead.

Game 4 is Tuesday in Calgary.

Mike Smith made 31 saves in the Oilers win.

Smith left the crease near the midway point of the third period after being hit by Calgary’s Milan Lucic behind the net, Lucic was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for the hit.

Mikko Koskinen did not have to make a save on the  in just under five minutes of ice time.

“I think we had a lot of our younger guys that haven’t been in this situation before, were a little bit intimidated by the atmosphere,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “[The Oilers] haven’t played at home in this round yet and they were going to come out hard and really play with a lot of purpose in their game, a lot of speed, and they did. And I thought ‘Marky’ [Markstrom] in the first period, probably made three or four saves that kept it at no score. But I just think give Edmonton credit the way they played in [the neutral zone], and it fed [McDavid’s] game for sure.”

After a scoreless first period, Zach Hyman  scored off the power play with less than a minute gone in the middle frame for a 1-0 lead to Edmonton.

Kane then added his hat trick for the 4-0 lead heading to the third period.

Edmonton’s top line of Connor McDavid, Kane, and Leon Draisaitl accounted for 10 points on the night.

“Obviously they made some plays on those goals and were spectacular, but I would go to their checking, though,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I’d talk about their checking, the way they defended. That line, I think Connor and Leon both finished plus-4. When our best players are leading the way defensively and setting the tone for what’s expected for the full 200 feet of the rink, I think it makes us a better team.”

In the final period, Oliver Kylington  scored for the Flames in the 16th minute to break up the shutout bid.

“We lose the second period 4-0, we let one guy dominate the game and unfortunately our second period wasn’t good enough,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. “We just have to stop [McDavid] with all five guys that are on the ice, six including Marky. We have to stop him as a unit. One individual can’t stop him. We just have to stop him together.”

Jacob Markstrom got the start for the Flames but was given the hook in the second intermission after yielding four goals in the second period.  He made 29 saves.

Dan Vladar made six saves in the third stanza.

“They’ve got one player that plays half the game and is playing some great hockey right now,” Calgary forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’ve got to find a way to stop that. When we get in their zone, we’ve got to hold pucks, nothing blind, and get shots to the goalie. That’s where they can have some trouble, with rebounds and loose coverage with that. (We) just have to have consistent O-zone shifts and not throw anything blind where they can feed their transition.”

In Calgary, the Edmonton Oilers rallied from a two-goal deficit in the middle frame to down the Flames, 5-3 ,on Friday night.

The win evened the series at 1-1.

The Flames held a 3-1 lead in the second period before surrendering four straight goals to the Oilers.

“It’s playoff hockey, it’s not going to be perfect every single night,” Calgary forward Tyler Toffoli said. “Things happen within a game. We have to stay composed and not take penalties and honestly, play our type of hockey.”

Edmonton tied it in the middle frame to enter the third period, 3-3.

Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl scored in the third period to get the win for Edmonton.

“I think it’s an emotional roller coaster,” Hyman said. “You’ve got to try to stay off of it as much as you can and stay even-keeled because it’s hockey, and some nights bounces are going to go your way and some nights they’re not. We’ve had kind of a roller coaster season where our backs have been against the wall, and our ability to push back has been second to none on any team I’ve been on.”

Mike Smith made 37 saves in the Oilers win.

Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard  scored in the second period to get the Oilers even with the Flames.

“He’s (McDavid) the best player in the world, and he’s pushing himself,” Hyman said. “When you’re the best, it’s easy to be comfortable because guys are chasing you, but it’s hard to keep pushing and keep challenging yourself, and he’s a guy who wants to win more than anybody.”

Calgary took a 2-0 lead off goals from Michael Stone and Brett Ritchie.

Duncan Keith cut the lead to 2-1 for his first goal of the playoffs for Edmonton.

“We didn’t get the start that we wanted, didn’t make it easy on ourselves,” McDavid said. “But obviously responded well.”

Tyler Toffoli scored for Calgary to get the lead back to two goals before the Oilers rallied.

Jacob Markstrom made 35 saves in the Flames loss.

“We’re kind of leaving our foundation a bit and playing into their hands,” Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “When you’re playing those 4-on-4’s and you’re short a lot it’s tough. We’ve got to clean that up for sure. ‘Marky’ made some huge saves for us and kept us in it.”