GAME STORY: Flames 4, Oilers 3

CALGARY, AB - The Oilers lost a forward, a defenceman, and ultimately the game on Monday as both Jujhar Khaira and Tyson Barrie left Monday's matchup with injuries and the Flames won 4-3.

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FIRST BLOOD

After a scoreless opening frame, a rare Connor McDavid turnover in the neutral zone allowed Elias Lindholm to send Dillon Dube in alone on Mike Smith and the Flames winger made a brief hesitation before firing home a five-hole shot for his seventh of the season to give the home team a 1-0 lead at 5:25 of the second period.

PLAY OF THE GAME

With the Oilers down 3-1 late in the second period, Devin Shore and Josh Archibald connected for a highlight-reel goal to bring the visitors back within one. Ethan Bear made a nice cross-ice pass in the neutral zone to Shore, who skated over the blueline on the left wing and found Archibald streaking to the net for a perfect redirect past Jacob Markstrom for his fifth of the year at the 17:07 mark.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Markstrom saved the best of his 28 stops for last as the Oilers had their goalie pulled in favour of the extra attacker and Tyler Ennis made a determined drive into the attacking zone before passing to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who set up Jesse Puljujarvi for a shot that could have tied the game in the final minute. Calgary's netminder was just able to get his blocker on the top-corner attempt to preserve the win.

TURNING POINT

Just 67 seconds after Leon Draisaitl tied the game at 3-3 at the 5:25 mark of the third, Noah Hanifin jumped up on the rush, took a feed from Andrew Mangiapane and beat Smith with a wrist shot from the slot to re-establish Calgary's lead with his third of the season that held up as the deciding goal.

TOP PERFORMER

Mangiapane was all over the ice on Monday, scoring Calgary's third goal and setting up Hanifin's eventual game-winner while logging 18:16 and recording two shots on goal. The diminutive winger now has nine goals and seven assists this season, with five points in the five Battle of Alberta games.

FACT CHECK

With his third-period equalizer, Draisaitl tied Craig Simpson for the seventh-most career goals scored by a player in Oilers franchise history with 185. He's now 24 tallies behind Hall of Fame defenceman Paul Coffey for sixth and 112 behind Ryan Smyth for fifth.

NEXT UP

The Oilers and Flames will get a day to rest and recover before squaring off again in the sixth Battle of Alberta of the season on Wednesday. The Oilers will fly home after the game and immediately face the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday back at Rogers Place. Edmonton and Winnipeg will also play Saturday before the Oilers embark on a six-game road trip.

PARTING WORDS

"It's definitely hard when you go down a guy, two in our case, a forward and a defenceman," Archibald said of losing both Khaira and Barrie in the opening period. "It screws the flow of the game up, but I thought we battled hard and it just didn't go our way tonight."

"I still think we're doing a lot of good things," Adam Larsson said of the Oilers dropping back-to-back games to Vancouver and Calgary. "We got enough chances to win, but today we came up short. We're still a confident group. We just have to play a lot harder."
"They're both day-to-day with upper-body injuries," Head Coach Dave Tippett said of Khaira and Barrie. "We lose JJ early and then we lose Barrie from the second period. When you're down a couple men you've got to tax some extra people, but that being said I thought we hung around but just made too many mistakes to give ourselves the best chance to win."