In Edmonton, the visiting Calgary Flames took game one of the seasonal Battle of Alberta. 
The Flames hit for four goals in the third period, and then held off a charge by the Oilers in the middle frame for a 4-3 win on Saturday night.
Nazem Kadri had a goal for the Flames, his first with his new club.
“I just tried to skate faster [when Kulak fell down],” Kadri said. “That’s kind of what happened. I saw he was going down and I just tried to put on the jets, and luckily came out with a chance and was able to finish.”
Dan Vladar made 26 saves in the Calgary win.
“I think guys were great today, they were blocking shots,” Vladar said. “Obviously, when you get the 4-1 lead, it’s way easier to play. You kind of don’t want to give them the momentum of letting the second one or the third one [in]. I did, but it wasn’t the plan, obviously. I’m just literally trying to do my best.”
Cody Ceci scored in the first period to get the Oilers on the board while the Flames ere running roughshod over the Oilers defense.
“I thought we played a really strong game,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “In the second period, you knew they were going to come with a push, and they did early. … I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job.”
Mikael Backlund g staked Calgary to a 1-0 lead, Ceci followed with his goal to tie the game, 1-1.
“The first period was good. We came out with a lot of energy and did some good things,” Calgary’s Michael Stone said. “We kind of got back on our heels a little bit in the second, but we managed to turn it back around in the third and finished off the game well, which was good to see. We didn’t panic. We know what it takes to win and what little things need to be done to win in this League.”
Kadri, Stone, and Andrew Mangiapane added goals in the opening frame for the 4-1 lead after 20 minutes.
“We’re putting ourselves behind in games, and obviously that’s not our plan heading into a game,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “The response in the second and third was better, but when you put yourself down the way we did, it’s too big a hill to climb after being down to that team 4-1.”
Connor McDavid and Ryan McLeod scored in the middle frame to get the Oilers within one, but the Flames shut Edmonton down the rest of the way for the first win in the annual rivalry series.
“We had a couple of whacks at the end. We were hoping one of those squeaks through, but it wasn’t meant to be,” the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl said. “Just individual and system mistakes, they’re little mistakes that are easy to clean up.
“We can’t spot a team three goals in back-to-back nights, though. That’s something we have to address, obviously.”
Jack Campbell made seven saves through the first half of the first period before getting the hook. He surrendered all four Flames goals.
“You look at some of the goals that went in, I thought around our net we were not near as assertive or hard the way we normally can play,” Woodcroft said. “They did a good job of getting to our net, and we can do a better job of preventing them from getting there.”
Stuart Skinner made 31 saves to keep the Oilers in the game.
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