from Robert Tychkowski of Edmonton Journal,
The Battle of Alberta is back, baby, and the rest of the NHL can eat its heart out.
Just when it looked like the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames couldn’t top Thursday’s classic return to the provincial rivalry, they doubled down on the intensity and emotion in Saturday’s rematch, throwing back to the glory days of the ’80s with 11 goals and a second-period line brawl.
When it was all over, and the last of the gloves had been picked up and names had been called, the Oilers avenged three previous losses to Calgary this year by laying a lopsided 8-3 beating on the dumbfounded Flames.
“Old time hockey,” grinned Oilers forward Sam Gagner, who was at ground zero when all hell broke loose. “Those are the fun ones, obviously. I like the way our guys stuck together. I thought our game was great pretty much the whole way through.”
from Eric Francis of Sportsnet,
Sure enough, the Oilers got a chance to retaliate with a stick flip of their own.
It came with 24 seconds left in the second period, a split-second before the first goalie versus goalie fight in the Battle of Alberta’s history.
Yep, you read that right.
Despite all the bad blood flowing for decades between north and south of this great province, it took a matchup between goalies who switched sides this summer to come to blows.
With Cam Talbot throwing blockers into the face of Alex Chiasson as part of an old-school melee in the Flames end, Mike Smith skated to centre ice with hopes of attracting a dance partner.
Watch the game highlights below.
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