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Edmonton Oilers 3 Calgary Flames 2

Oilers Take Battle of the B-Squads

D'Arcy McGrath

September 19, 2001

 

13,132.

 

That's the number of brave souls that ventured out to the Saddledome to witness the most recent Battle of Alberta, sans stars from both sides.

 

At least half of them left happy.

 

An Olympic season compounded by the tragic events of last Tuesday in the United States created a three games in three nights situation for the Calgary Flames.

 

The result was a middle game played against the Oilers with a skeleton crew that fought the puck, and the Oilers all night.

Calgarypuck Three Stars
1. Georges Laraque - goal and an assist, tough to move off the puck all night

2. Marc Lamothe - made the stops when he had to.

3. Scott Nichol - goal and an assist in Flame debut.

The Flames opened the scoring when free agent signee, Scott Nichol notched his first goal of the preseason. The goal came with a two man advantage in the midst of a string of penalties taken by an over aggressive Oiler defence. On the play Nichol converted a Phil Housley deflection into a wide open cage.


The Oilers tied the score at the tail end of the first period when the skillful brawler, Georges Laraque pounced on a rebound, and beat a fallen Kay Whitmore.

 

The game's first scrap took place in the first when Ron Petrovicky took Sean Brown hard into the boards. The Oiler defender was incensed and retaliated starting the mix up. Brown got in the better shots, but Petrovicky tossed him to the ice to end the tilt.

 

The only goal of the second period came off the stick of Oiler rookie Marc-Andre Bergeron. Bergeron took a pass on his off wing, and deftly deked around an outstretched Dany Sabourin to put the Oilers up for the first time in the game.

 

Hit of the Game
Jan Horacek - catches Oleg Saprykin with his head down in the first period

Midway through the third period the Flames tied the score on a great effort by Dwayne Hay. Hay took the puck from the corner on a delayed penalty, before going to his back hand and sweeping it by Marc Lamothe.

 

Late in the third the Oilers notched the game winner when Domenic Pittis converted a Georges Laraque rebound on a powerplay.

 

The Flames take to the ice again tomorrow night against the Vancouver Canucks.

USA Today Boxscore

 

Twine Talk

 

Mike Vernon was the expected starter of the game, but was replaced by Kay Whitmore in order to tend to personal matters. Whitmore was solid stopping 17 of 18 shots through just over 30 minutes of play.

 

Dany Sabourin mopped up, surrendering two goals on 14 shots to take the loss. He really couldn't be faulted on either goal.

 

Marc Lamothe went the distance for the Oilers, stopping 24 of 26 shots for the win.