|
 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.
|
Edmonton
Oilers 3 Calgary Flames 2