Oilers thrash Flames, 7-1

In the Battle of Alberta, it was more like a scrimmage between the A team and the local rec league on Saturday night.

Connor McDavid notched a natural hat trick and had five points for the Oilers who demolished the Calgary Flames, 7-1, in Edmonton.

“You have some nights where the puck just goes in for you and you don’t feel that good, and nights where you feel amazing and it just doesn’t go,” McDavid said. “Hockey is a crazy game like that. It felt good tonight and it went in for me, and I thought our team played really well.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added two goals and three points in the win.

“There is not really anybody out there like him,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “He drove the game right from the start, and the boys just kind of followed along. I thought he was solid all night long. It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to be a part of.”

Andrew Mangiapane scored the lone Flames goal in the second period, long after the game had been decided in the opening 20 minutes.

“That was probably one of the toughest moments since I’ve been here,” the Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk said. “The way it went, the way things are going, things snowballed, and it got out of hand pretty quickly. I feel terrible for our goalies. They come in and they battle every practice and every game, and if it wasn’t for them right now, who knows where we’d be in the standings? We’d be pretty close to the bottom.”Alex Chiasson and Josh Archibald added single markers for the Oilers.

“To be able to win both and in regulation, it’s big for us,” McDavid said. “But it’s still early on in the year, there’s lots of hockey left. We’re playing well and we need to keep winning games.

Jacob Markstrom made 10 saves and yielded five goals, including McDavid’s hat trick, before getting the hook in the second period.

“Obviously, he *McDavid) was really, really good tonight,” Flames head coach Geoff Ward said. “I thought we did a real good job on him last night, and tonight he was good. Good players, they have the ability to do that. Saying that for us, we still need to be aware of that, and when you give a good player as much time and space as we did tonight, that’s what happens.”

David Rittich made seven saves in the mop up.