Flames beat Oilers 4-3 in shootout on opening night – Hockey Writer – Calgary Flames
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames square off in the first game of the 2025-26 NHL season on Wednesday night (October 8) at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. The Oilers were Western Conference champions for the second straight season, but lost in the Cup Final. The Flames, meanwhile, missed the playoffs last season but enter the new season with a young roster and renewed hope.
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The Flames won 4-3 in a shootout. This is your game review.
game review
In the first stage of the season, the two played limited games in the first half. But finally, around midfield, Morgan Frost received a delay-of-game penalty and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took advantage of Edmonton’s ensuing power struggle. Less than seven minutes later, they doubled their lead when Andrew Mangiapane scored his first as an Oiler with an absolute missile over Dustin Wolf’s shoulder. New signing Connor McDavid assisted on both goals. Edmonton jumped out to a 2-0 lead and ended up 9-4.
Midfield also took a while to get going, but another Flames penalty midway through sparked the Oilers. David Tomasek extended the lead with a nice cross-court pass to Leon Draisaitl, scoring his 400th NHL career goal in the process. This is also Tomasek’s first goal in his NHL career. For Edmonton, this is a very commendable goal.
The Flames got a lucky bounce off the Oilers’ skate minutes later, with Matvei Gridin scoring his first NHL goal to close the deficit. Calgary seized the momentum and as they got going quickly, Connor Zary hit a home run to bring them within one goal. At the end of this quarter, Edmonton still led 3-2 and eventually led 20-11.
The third period got off to a fast start when Stuart Skinner’s indecisive puck action resulted in Blake Coleman poking the puck past him, tying the game 40 seconds into the game. From that point on, both teams played cautiously, defended closely, and the game was tied. After three quarters, the two sides were tied at 3-3, with the Oilers leading 29-19. This one requires extra hockey.
Extra time brought some good work, with MacKenzie Weegar taking a penalty and a foul play within 10 minutes, but that was it. After overtime, the Oilers were tied 35-22.
In the shootout, Draisaitl opened the scoring for Edmonton and connected with Wolff on a nice side-by-side shot. Frost then responded quickly for Calgary with a glove side sniper. It all came down to overtime in this round, and in the eighth round, Nazeem Kadri completed the comeback for the team and buried a game.
There were some great performances in the season opener. Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists, McDavid had two assists and Draisaitl had a goal and an assist. As for the Flames, they spread the love, scoring points all over the roster.
The Oilers next game will be at home again on Saturday, October 11 against the Vancouver Canucks. Puck drops at 8pm MDT.
The Flames face a quick turnaround when they next play on the road on Thursday night (October 9). They will take on the Canucks at Rogers Arena at 8pm PDT.
