The common theme in the comments from the Flames and their coach after Friday night's loss to the Oilers was: it was a better performance, but still not good enough.
They can be better.
"Obviously, you get down one, and another one," said captain Mark Giordano. "They didn't give up much. They were tight-checking, but we've got to find a way to get through the neutral zone and generate more, that's the bottom line. When you turn it over in the neutral zone, that's not a recipe for success. We've got to put pucks in and generate more zone time than we did."
The Oilers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period en route to a 2-1 victory at the Scotiabank Saddledome to even up this season's Battle of Alberta at one game apiece.
Jesse Puljujarvi and Gaetan Haas - with the game-winner - had the tallies for the visistors while Rasmus Andersson scored for Calgary, just 45 seconds after the Haas marker. That goal came courtesy of a great setup pass by Johnny Gaudreau after he won a battle for the puck with Tyson Barrie via a nifty stick lift on the Oilers defenceman.
David Rittich, making his third start of the season, stopped 23 shots, while former Flame Mike Smith came up big for Edmonton, making 20 stops.
"I felt pretty good," said Rittich after. "I think my game was overall pretty good but it didn't end up how I want and how we all want. It's not really good now but it is what it is and we have to re-group tomorrow and be better."
That message of re-grouping and finding a way to get on the board first tonight also echoed post-game.
"Somehow, we still have to find a way to score the first goal and play with the lead and take it from there," said Andersson. "We're chasing the game and they go 2-0 and then it's 2-1 and then we're chasing the entire third period. You're not going to win a whole lot of games when you're chasing from behind every night."
The Oilers, to their credit, played a great road game, clogging up the middle and making it tough for the Flames to generate chances.
"There wasn't a lot of ice out there, for sure," said head coach Geoff Ward. "We know how to play to get through it. It's a matter of putting our minds to it and getting it done. They were good through the neutral zone tonight and that's an area where we have to be better tomorrow."
