On Tuesday night in Calgary, Mike Smith made 28 saves to help the Flames shutout the Edmonton Oilers, 1-0.
“Everyone’s keeping a close eye on it, but we’ve just got to keep cruising along here,” said Smith, who earned his third shutout this season and 36th in his NHL career. “We have to look after what we can control, and that’s us. Everyone’s scoreboard watching, but in the end it’s about what we’re doing and we can kind 
of control our own destiny. Just one game at a time here.”
Johnny Gaudreau scored the game’s lone goal in the second period.
“Quick backhand,” Oilers goalie Cam Talbot said. “That’s the kind of guy you don’t want in a situation like that. He’s got some of the best hands in the League in tight situations. You give him that much time and space out front and you’re going to have to make a great save, and I wasn’t able to do that. I thought I came up with a lot of big ones, but couldn’t match Mike.”
The Flames are just two points back of third place in the Pacific Division and improved to 35-26-10.
“In a one-goal game you want to keep the lead, obviously, and not give that up,” Smith said. “It’s cliché, every goalie says it; worry about one save at a time. You’re just trying to make that big save at the right time, and fortunately tonight I was able to do that.”
The Oilers dropped to 30-35-4 with the loss.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Flames highlights]
Talbot made 31 saves in taking the loss.
“We knew we were going to get a desperate team that needs every point possible. You could see at the very end guys laying down and blocking shots. We knew we were going to get their best tonight, and they got a really good game from us as well. It was a good old-fashioned ‘Battle of Alberta,’ but we came out on the wrong end of this one,” Talbot said after the loss.
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