There was once a time in the mid-80′s when the Flames played 13 games against the Edmonton Oilers without gaining a win.

  The Flames have a similiar domination going now against their provincial rivals.

  Lee Stempniak’s “hat trick”, the first by a Flame this season, on Saturday in Edmonton,was the latest Flame mastery over the Oilers.

  The 6-2 triumph marked the Flames 9th straight win over the Oilers and 16th over the past 17 games.  The lone Oiler win was their first meeting of the 2010-11 season when Edmonton gained a 4-0 win.  That was the night, in Edmonton, when Steve MacIntyre ko’ed Raitis Ivanens with one punch in the 3rd period putting the Flames’ winger out of hockey for a full year with a concussion.

  The only knockout punch thrown Saturday was the Flames’ total control  of the game, which started 6:48 in when Mikael Backlund opened the scoring.

  It was the Flames 4th straight win this season over the Oilers clinching a win of the season series for a third straight year. 

 Tom Renney, in his 2nd season as Edmonton coach, lamented after the Dec. 10 loss in Calgary that his club was at a disavantage in the first 3 meetings.  He pointed all that the young Oilers played the night before on all 3 clashes while the Flames rested.

  There was no such edge this time.  Both team had played their previous 2 games out of the porovince on Tuesday and  Thursday.  Both flew a little better than 3 hours to the provincial capital on Friday.  Neither played the night prior.

  Stempniak’s 3 goals and one assist with a +5 rating was the highlight for his line with Ollie Jokinen, who hasa 2 assists and Blake Comeau, who had a goal and 2 assists for his most productive night as a Flame.

  Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester had a goal and 2 helpers as well.

  Six points out of 6 would have made last week a perfect 3-game trip, but nobody was complaining having gained 5 points out of 6 keeping the Flames within a couple of points out of the 8th and final playoff sport in the West Conference.

  Now a Tuesday home classh against San Jose before taking a week off for the All-Star break.  Another win the departure on Wednesday will be even more enjoyable.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.