In Edmonton, the Oilers’ top scorers were held off the board and they lost 4-3 to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night after the skills competition.
Andrew Mangiapane struck twice for the Flames in the win.
David Rittich made 31 saves to grab the win.
“It was a hard game. They had a really good first period, especially the second half,” Rittich said. “They had a lot of shots, a lot of good looks. We took over in the second — two tough goals that they scored. Thank God for [Mangiapane]. He got a couple goals, and we went into the third up 3-2. The third one, I should say, I kind of gave them one point here.”
Kailer Yamamoto and Alex Chiasson scored for the Oilers.
“In the first 10 minutes, we looked rusty coming back from the break,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. “We were jittery with the puck, chasing the puck, and we gave up that fluky goal. I was hoping we would start a little quicker, but once we got going, I thought in the second period that we were all right. We had some coverage issues on some goals that I would like to see a better job done on.”
Matt Benning‘s goal in the third period pushed the game past regulation.
“It’s always tough coming back from a break, and our team has not been very good when we have come back from breaks,” Edmonton captain Connor McDavid said. “But I thought they scored a little bit of a fluky one to start, and it puts us a little bit behind the eight ball, but we did a good job battling back, earning ourselves a point, and then losing in a skills competition.”
Elias Lindholm also scored for the Flames.
“A lot of people in Calgary were talking before that it’s must-see TV,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “I don’t know, I guess it was a must-see hockey game for fans. It’s two teams close to each other city-wise, and fans get into it. I guess it’s been a rivalry for years.”
Sean Monahan had the only skills goal in the session for the winner.
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Oilers highlights]
Mike Smith made 25 saves in the loss.
“We definitely would have liked to get that extra point tonight,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We got one and we have some games in hand (on other Pacific Division teams in the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs). But that’s going to be the way we’re going to have to play from now on. It was tight-checking, there wasn’t a lot out there.”
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