The Edmonton Oilers were closed out for the second-in a row pre-season game, falling 4-0 to the Flares in Calgary on Wednesday night.
“There’s things we can improve unpleasantly without a doubt, yet I take a gander at the up-sides of that game,” Oilers lead trainer Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought Tyson Barrie played an amazing game. He showed a ton of initiative. Two games in succession out and about, as a veteran player to come in and play out the manner in which he did I believed that was brilliant. I thought Philip Kemp turned in a great game. Pickard in net played all around well and there was a few decent signs in our group game. Once more, the punishment kill was excellent — and a things to expand on and a things to deal with.”
The main time frame was scoreless however the Blazes conveyed the play, outshooting the Oilers 13-8.
Brett Sutter opened the scoring for the Blazes in the second, hacking a free puck past Oilers netminder Calvin Pickard.
“It’s precisely exact thing I needed in the preseason; coming in and playing against the huge folks,” Pickard said. “Clearly you need to win the preseason, and yet you need to get once more into game shape and face a ton of predicaments. The initial ten minutes was extreme, it was a great deal of zone time, yet I thought after that we got comfortable very great. We just couldn’t get anything past him.”
Pickard halted 16 of 17 shots prior to being supplanted by Stuart Skinner. With 3:24 to go in the second, Calgary’s Michael Stone shot a slapper past Skinner to make it 2-0.
Flares defenceman MacKenzie Weegar rolled in from the point and made it 3-0 with 3:34 left in the third. Calgary forward Jonathan Huberdeau scored a void netter to balance the scoring.
Flares goaltenders Jacob Markstrom (12 recoveries) and Dustin Wolf (nine recoveries) joined for the shutout. For the Oilers, Pickard halted 16 of 17 shots while Skinner turned aside 14 of 16.
The Oilers will proceed with the pre-season with a home game against the Flares on Friday. You can stand by listening to the game live on 630 CHED starting with The Faceoff Show at 5:30 p.m. also, the game at 7 p.m.
