The Flames opened their Covid-expanded regular-season Battle of Alberta series with the Oilers by beating them 6-4 on Feb. 6.
Edmonton, however, won the next three.
So, Monday night's 4-3 victory was important for many reasons:
1. They beat their provincial rivals;
2. They gained some valuable ground in the standings;
3. They won their third straight game and are undefeated under new head coach Darryl Sutter (speaking of, listen to our new Firestarter Podcastwith Ron and Rich Sutter talking about their brother's new role here);
4. They faced down adversity to score the game-winner after Edmonton had tied up the game in the third period.
"We have to take steps to get better," said Sutter Tuesday after practice. "You're not going to take big ones, it's little ones. We've seen little ones. Last night we were by no means perfect or (had our) A-Game, but I do think that we showed a lot of composure and resilience. Edmonton comes back and ties it 3-3 and then we score the winner. I think, we, against a team like that - we can play better, but I think that's what we showed last night. Every game has been something different."
But they can't afford to spend too much looking in the rearview mirror. It was an important win but now it's time to focus on tnight and the rematch with Edmonton, two more big points (or four, you could argue) on the line as the Flames continue their resurgence.
"The balance is pretty easy and I'm very upfront and honest about it and break it down," said Sutter of pointing out the positive and negatives to his team's play Monday as they strive to get better. "Meet with the guys today as we did, go through it and find ways to get better and find ways to improve and make sure we understand of what we have to put into the game in terms of our preparation to win hockey games. The schedule is so compact that you've got to move on in a hurry in games, you've got to take what you can in games and move on to the next one."
Noah Hanifin notched the game-winner Monday, while Dillon Dube, Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for Calgary, which improved to 14-12-3.
Jacob Markstrom was impressive between the pipes with 28 saves.
