Third Period Melt Down

How many times do I have to write this same article? The Oilers had the lead then lost it in the third period.

Highlights

First Period

• 17:17 GOAL - Right off of the face Ryan Nugent-Hopkins forces the puck to Jordan Eberle in the slot and he buries the puck.
• 14:42 FIGHT - Keith Aulie & Brandon Bollig
• 14:38 FIGHT - Luke Gazdic & Deryk Engelland
• 13:37 4v5 - Matt Hendricks for roughing - Drawn by Mark Giordano (200ft away from the Oilers’ net and while the Oilers had the puck)
• 12:28 - Giordano takes a massive shot from the point. Scrivens makes the initial stop and juggles the rebound. Johnny Gaudreau is right there to put away the rebound but Ben Scrivens stones him.
• 11:37 5v5 - Penalty expires
• 8:19 GOAL - Eberle tries a sharp angle shot but it goes off the side of the net. Eberle then grabs the puck and goes behind the net. Meanwhile Benoit Pouliot is all alone in front of the net, Eberle gets the puck to him and he puts it away.

This wasn’t a great period for the Oilers by any stretch of the imagination but the Oilers’ first line of Pouliot - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle got good match ups. As long as they didn’t meet up with Giordanon and Brodie they were pretty much golden.

Second Period

• 12:06 5v4 - David Jones for cross checking - Drawn by Pouliot
• 10:06 5v5 - Penalty expires
• 9:29 - David Wolf gets a pass from Matt Stajan and fires it off the crossbar
• 8:37 - Josh Jooris gets a shot off on net and the rebound bounces right out to slot but the play is blown dead beacause Gaudreau had crashed into Scrivens
• 7:09 4v5 - Pouliot for hooking - Drawn by TJ Brodie
• 5:09 5v5 - Penalty expires

The second period was less exciting than the first. There was a lot of open ice play but not much in the area of shots on net. The highlight of the period belongs to David Wolf and his cross bar at 9:29.

Third Period

• 17:04 GOAL - Mason Raymond gets the puck in behind the Oilers net and skates around front with it and puts the puck past a screened Scrivens
• 15:23 - The puck bounces down the ice and Rob Klinkhammer races for it. He gets to the puck but can’t get a good angle on the shot and puts it right on Jonas Hiller
• 13:44 GOAL - A bad turn over by Derek Roy leads to Mikael Backlund being able to gain the zone. Backlund feathers a pass over to Lance Bouma who puts it past Scrivens.
• 11:33 4v5 - Roy for hooking - Drawn by Bouma
• 11:21 GOAL - Sean Monahan puts it in off of Aulie’s skate because Aulie is the guy you want on the ice in PK situation
• 7:09 4v5 - Matt Fraser for slashing - Drawn by Raphael Diaz
• 5:09 5v5 - Penalty expires
• 3:33 GOAL - Derek Roy turns the puck over again and once again Backlund gets the puck and its a 2 on 1 for the Flames. Backlund gets the puck over to Bouma who puts it past Scrivens.
• 2:30 - Oilers Empty Net

Well it was bound to happen. The Oilers didn’t play a great game and we all know how the Flames play in the third. The Oilers could’ve been up 5-0 and still lost the game based on the way they played the third. It was a brutal period that was accentuated by some poor on ice decisions.

Thoughts

What else is there to say? The Flames have had the Oilers’ number this season. Even in games the Oilers looked good they still couldn’t win. Tonight the Oilers looked bad and were lucky to get into the third period up by 2 goals.

Up Next

The Oilers head to San Jose on Monday to finish off this quick road trip.