In one of the wildest games in recent Stanley Cup playoff history, the Calgary Flames outscored the Edmonton Oilers 9-6 in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
It looked like Calgary would cruise to victory in the opener of the Battle of Alberta, jumping out to a 6-2 lead, but Edmonton rallied, scoring four unanswered goals before the Flames pulled away late.
"Probably our worst game of the playoffs so far", said Calgary forward Matthew Tkachuk, who had a hat-trick. "We got super lucky. That's just not the recipe for success.
"Maybe we win this one, but we're not going to win many more if we're going to play like that. We've got to do better with the lead. We had a four-goal lead. That should be enough in the playoffs. We'll be better in the next game."
Blake Coleman scored two goals, and Andrew Mangiapane and Rasmus Andersson each had a goal and two assists for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves.
Connor McDavid had a four-point night with a goal and three assists, Zach Hyman scored twice, and Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists for the Oilers.
Mike Smith allowed three goals on 10 shots before being replaced in the first period by Mikko Koskinen who made 32 saves.
"Just a couple of mistakes, collectively, individually, that ended up right on their tape and back of our net", Draisaitl said. "Lot of things we obviously need to clean up."
Game 2 is Friday night in Calgary.
"It's just one game, that's how we look at it", said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. "We'll go back to the drawing board and address the issues that showed up."
Story of the game
Calgary was off and running just 26 seconds into the game as Elias Lindholm saw his shot go in off of the glove of Smith.
They extended the lead to 2-0 as Mikael Backlund passed from behind the net to Mangiapane, who scored just 25 seconds after Lindholm.
The two goals scored in 51 seconds are the fastest to start a playoff game in NHL history.
"When you're down 2-0 before it hits the 19-minute mark on the clock, it's obviously not a good start", Drasaitl said. "Clearly, we weren't ready."
Brett Ritchie made it 3-0 after stealing the puck from Evander Kane in the Edmonton zone, prompting Woodcroft to make the change in net.
McDavid got the Oilers on the board, stickhandling at the top of the crease and shooting five-hole after the puck popped out to him from below the goal line.
Just 45 seconds into the second period, Coleman scored on a rebound and he made it 5-1 when he redirected a slap pass from Noah Hanifin in the slot.
"There's a lot of different ways to contribute in the playoffs, and I try to find different ways to do it when i'm not scoring", he said. "Obviously, on a night like tonight, it's a good thing pucks were going in, because we needed every goal we could get."
Evan Bouchard made it 5-2, but Tkachuk batted the puck past Koskinen on the power play to bring it back to a four-goal game.
That's when the Oilers began their comeback. Hyman scored from the outer edge of the left circle to make it 6-3. He then doubled his tally when he skated out from behind the net and beat Markstrom glove side.
Draisaitl shot glove side again on Markstrom after Hanifin's clearing attempt in the neutral zone deflected off McDavid with 39 seconds to play in the period.
"We made some mental mistakes in the second period, got away from our checking game a little bit", Coleman said. "The good news is its correctable.
"We can go back to the drawing board tomorrow, and as long as guys are willing to look in the mirror and take responsibility for what happened in that period, we're going to be fine. We're going to regroup, get back to our game."
"We played probably the worst 15 or 20 minutes of hockey we have all year, definitely in the playoffs, and it's still a tie game", Tkachuk said. "Wasn't the end of the world.
"Still got to go out there. Can't roll over and let them win. It was big to get that seventh goal from 'Ras', and we went from there."
The game was tied when Kailer Yamamoto scored 1:28 into the third period, but Andersson put Calgary back in front when he chipped in, received a pass from Mangiapane, and shot short side over Koskinen's left shoulder from the right circle.
Tkachuk finished off the scoring, beating Koskinen five-hole to make it 8-6 and potting an empty-netter for the final margin.
"We got to 6-6, then turned over some pucks and it ended up in the back of our net", Woodcroft said. "Like I keep saying, we scored six goals on the Calgary Flames in their building, that should be enough to win a game."