Despite valiant effort, Flames fall to Oilers after Draisaitl's heroics

EDMONTON — The box score suggests the Calgary Flames lost another heartbreaker in overtime late Saturday. 

The reality is their die was cast 12 hours earlier when doctors cleared Leon Draisaitl to return from a four-game absence.

From there, everything unfolded exactly the way it seemingly always does when King Leon faces the Calgary Flames. 

With him dominating.

This time, he made history in the process, scoring his NHL-record sixth overtime winner of the season.

There couldn’t have been a person in Rogers Place who didn’t think that shortly after Draisaitl’s 50th tied a tight game with three minutes left that he wasn’t going to finish the job, and the predictable storyline, with his 11^th game-winner of the season.

Despite a valiant effort from a Flames club that led 2-1 late in the third, the best goal scorer on the planet this season found a way to break more hearts in Calgary than a federal election.

Eight shots, two goals and one assist in a 3-2 overtime win for Draisaitl all added up to yet another evening in which the Flames lost ground in the playoff race.

With ten games left, time is running out, and they know it.

“Pretty tough, it’s definitely not easy,” said Nazem Kadri, who continued his recent dominance with primary assists on both Calgary goals.

“A good player makes a couple nice shots and it’s unfortunate.”

Devastating, actually, as the Flames fell seven points back of St. Louis and Minnesota with the late collapse.

Games in hand don’t mean much when late leads aren’t finished off properly.

A neutral zone turnover late in the dying minutes gave No. 29 a chance to streak in down the right wing and release a perfect snapper far post, past Dustin Wolf.

A three-on-two in the extra frame allowed him far too much room and time in the deep slot to rifle yet another rocket home for the winner, ending Wolf’s Battle of Alberta debut in crushing fashion.

If it all sounds eerily familiar, it’s because the four-time 50-goal scorer has indeed feasted on the Flames throughout his career, scoring 14 times and adding 49 assists in 48 games against his southern rival.

“I think we played pretty well for 55, 56 minutes, but moral victories don’t matter right now — we came here for the two points, and we didn’t get it,” said Flames defenceman Brayden Pachal, who scored his fifth NHL goal and added an assist one game after being a healthy scratch.

“He’s an incredible player, and it’s cool to watch him out there, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to find a way to shut him down and finish off the game.”

The Flames picked up where they left off against Dallas two nights earlier, with a relentless forecheck that eventually saw Yegor Sharangovich bang in a rebound four minutes in.

Also a healthy scratch one game earlier, Sharangovich’s second in the last 18 games came with him filling in for Connor Zary, who suffered his second knee injury of the year against the Stars.

Zary, incidentally, was declared “week-to-week” by the Flames earlier in the day, about an hour after Draisaitl spoke to reporters about his (likely) return to a depleted Oilers lineup.

“You gotta give him credit, he’s a good player,” said Mikael Backlund, whose club regained the lead with 12 minutes left, courtesy of Pachal.

“You could tell he was fresh coming back from his injury. He’s one of the best players and he made some good plays, and that was, unfortunately, the difference tonight.”

Sure was.

“Hey, he’s one of the best, if not the best, in the NHL this year,” said Ryan Huska, whose club has to reset for a back-to-back in Denver and Salt Lake City starting Monday.

“When you have someone of his calibre, and you give him room on the ice, and you allow him to shoot the puck as much as he did tonight, eventually he’s going to break through and score. So I don’t think we did a good enough job against him tonight.”  

Wolf made 26 saves in his Battle of Alberta debut, which included two big saves on Draisaitl's two-on-ones in which he sent dangerous shots on goal.

“I really liked our game actually, I felt like we didn’t really give up a lot either. It sucks not to come out with two points, but one point is one point,” said Kadri, whose club is 0-1-1 in their last two outings despite outplaying both opponents.

“You can’t get discouraged. I think that’s encouraging more than anything. If we continue to repeat that, I think I like our chances.”