PENTICTON – Goals have been hard to come by so far for the Flames at the Young Stars Classic tournament.
Jack Beck had the lone tally for Calgary Saturday night in a 4-1 defeat to the Oilers in a BC edition of the Battle of Alberta.
It was the Flames first marker of the tourney after they opened with a 3-0 loss to the Canucks on Friday night.
Dustin Wolfplaying in his second game in as many nights, made 21 saves after turning aside 34 pucks against Vancouver.
“Kind of the same story as last night,” said head coach Mitch Love. “Decent first period, and then the game kind of got away from us at times. And it’s been a bit of a struggle for us offensively so far. But, you know, again, we’ll look at some things here, we’ ve got a day to reset ourselves, and then get back here and try to find a win for this tournament.”
The Flames don’t play Sunday, practicing in the afternoon before finishing things off against the Jets Monday.
“Tonight, probably more so last night, it was hard for us to make two consecutive plays,” said Love. “I think with young minds and back to backs it starts to wear on you mentally and then you start to squeeze your stick and the execution isn’t there and I think that’s what we ran into a little bit tonight you know, so I think the day off and you know, maybe in practice try to work on gaining some confidence offensively as a group (for) Monday.”
FIRST PERIOD:
Emilio Pettersen, Connor Zary and Walker Duehr started up front with the Flames Yan Kuznetsov and Rhett Rhinehart on the blueline.
Adam Klapka got the first good look for the Flames early in the frame, but Olivier Rodrigue was in a good position to smooth the attempt.
Calgary product Dylan Holloway – who the Oilers took with the 14th overall pick in 2020 – had plenty of jump in the opening stanza, streaking in off the right wing on one rush but Wolf turned his offering aside.
The Oilers got on the board in 3:24 when Noah Philp cut in and snapped the puck shortside.
Beck answered back at 11:17 when his shot found the back of the net Lucas Ciona Battling at the top of the crease in front of Rodrigue causing all kinds of havoc. Click here for a pre-tourney feature on Beck
Klapka nearly made it 2-1 on a Flames powerplay when he kicked a cross-ice feed Rory Kerins from his skate onto his stick for a quick shot right beside the net.
SECOND PERIOD:
Wolf was sharp to start the middle stanza, getting across to stop a wicker one-timer from Phil Kemp just 46 ticks in.
Edmonton would take the lead later after Wolf stoned Xavier Bourgault in tight but the Oilers forward got the puck back and fed James Hamblin who put a high wrister past Wolf at 8:03.
With just over five minutes to go, Kerins feathered a nifty pass through to Ciona off a rush but his grazing tip went wide of the net.
Zary made a great play on the Oilers third powerplay of the game to spring Duehr on a breakaway and he beat Rodrigue but not the post, clanging a rocket off the iron.
The duo created another chance in the final minute of the period but couldn’t connect on a 2-on-1.
THIRD PERIOD:
The two teams started the third 4-on-4 after a little bruhaha after the final whistle of the second Cole Schwindt and Kemp in the penalty box to kick things off.
With the team’s back at full strength, Wolf made two massive stops on Jake Chiasson who got the puck down low and walked out all alone, skating across the blue paint and trying to bang the biscuit home.
Holloway scored with a low wrister shortside at exactly the halfway point of the period to increase the Edmonton lead.
Just 10 seconds later off the ensuing faceoff, Klapka and Mike Kesselring had a quick fight that landed both in the bin for five minutes.
The Flames pulled Wolf with five minutes left to go 6-on-5 but the Oilers got an empty-netter courtesy of Holloway.
THEY SAID IT:
Video: Coach weighs in result against Oilers
Video: “That’s not the result any of us wanted”
UP NEXT:
The Flames will practice Sunday and then wrap up their tournament on Monday when they take on the Winnipeg Jets at noon MTN.
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