The three-game sweep starts in Edmonton where the Calgary Flames found a hat trick on the stick of Michael Frolik and defeated the host Oilers, 5-4.
They were the first goals of the season for Frolik and included the game-winner on a bad angle shot.
“The puck was rimmed in and [Matt] Stajan went to battle for it and I kind of came to help him,” Frolik said. “I had a bit of a battle and I just tried to shoot it off his pads and it went in. It was kind of a lucky goal, but it was a big one.”
Oilers goalie Cam Talbot was victimized by the bad bounce and redirection and took the loss making 27 saves.
“I saw [Frolik] look up at the net and knew he was going to try and bank it,” Talbot said. “I tried to hug the post the best I could and not give him any holes but he found one on me. There’s no excuses; that puck can’t cross the line. Points aren’t easy to come by and we did a great job of battling back in the third. It’s just really deflating giving up that goal with eight seconds left. We were close to a point and to be able to fight for a second one [in overtime] and we come out with nothing thanks to me.”
Taylor Hall, Brandon Davidson, Teddy Purcell and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers who fell to 4-8-0.
“It’s really disappointing to go behind 2-0, 3-0 every game,” said Hall, who also had two assists. “It forces you to play a perfect game from there on. It’s really hard to do that. I thought we played well after we got down, but it’s too hard to play like that.”
The Flames improved to 3-8-1 and continue to struggle despite the win.
The Boston Bruins are hot on the road this season and remained unbeaten with a 3-1 win over the Lightning in Tampa Saturday.
Brett Connolly gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead early in the third off the power play and it proved to be the game-winner.
“I wanted to have a good game, I wanted to play hard, and most importantly I wanted to get a win,” Connolly said. “I thought we played a pretty good road game, and, you know, the team is playing really well right now and it’s a fun time to be playing.”
Matt Beleskey and Brad Marchand also scored for Boston who improved to 6-3-1.
The Bolts fell to 5-5-2 on the season and have not had the consistency of last season.
“[It’s] frustrating; you just can’t go out there and expect that we’re going to win games because of what happened last year,” Lightning center Steven Stamkos said. “Whether that’s the mindset, I can’t speak for anyone else, but … we’re out of sync. We’re hanging our goalie out to dry, we can’t score.
“This is a new season, teams know what to expect when they play us, and that’s why it’s a challenge each and every year. I take responsibility as the leader of this team [and] I have to be better.”
Jonas Gustavsson made 21 saves for the win.
“I thought our guys handled what they threw at us early in the game,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We weathered the storm and then we just seemed to keep getting better. Our forecheck, our determination, our battles … everything seemed to be there. We got great goaltending again. A really good effort.”
Ben Bishop made 32 saves in the loss and expressed frustration of the locker room after the game.
“I think everybody in this room is pretty [angry],” Bishop said. “We can’t come out here in front of these fans and play like that. We expect better from ourselves. It’s on us. I think maybe this is what we needed. We’ve got a game [Sunday] and that’s a good thing so we can put this behind us. We have to wake up pretty quick.”
In Ottawa, the Detroit Red Wings took the back end of a home-and-home series from the Senators; the Sens won Friday in Detroit, 3-1.
Saturday saw the Wings take advantage of the power play for a 5-3 win.
Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist had power-play goals and Jonathan Ericsson, Dylan Larkin and Danny DeKeyser potted goals for the Wings.
“I liked our game,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought the second period was as good as we had done throughout the season in terms of having zone time, kind of grinding it in their end, getting changes, getting new guys out there and continuing to grind. That’s the way we want to play, that’s what we want to be as a hockey team.”
The Senators have now surrendered 11 power play goals on the year with more than 50 minor penalties called against them this season.
“I thought we were playing some decent hockey early, took a few bad penalties, me included, and it kind of took away a little momentum,” Senators wing Mark Stone said.
“I think in the third period we just really gave up after they made it 4-1 really early, which is not what we need.”
Craig Anderson made 23 saves in the loss and Petr Mrazek made 33 saves for the Red Wings.
“It’s not just struggling on home ice, it’s the drop in our game,” Senators coach Dave Cameron said. “There’s too big a drop in our game when we’re good and when we’re not good. We have to figure out why that is. I talked to them and I had a few suggestions why I think that is and challenged them in a couple of areas. We’ll see where that goes.”
The Sens are 1-3-2 at home.
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