Calgary deserves its share of credit for not giving up.
The Flames were counted out last season more often than a punch-drunk boxer but hung around the playoff race until they were eventually eliminated by a tiebreaker.
“It’s a big win; it galvanizes the team,” Flames forward Blake Coleman said. “You’re down 3-0 and you show it as a group that you’re willing to stick with it and start playing the right way. We’ve shown in the past we can win games coming from behind. A lot of third-period goals. You don’t want to start that way, but our team showed a lot of resilience tonight.”
Calgary looked overwhelmed early on, giving up a first-period, power-play goal to Nugent-Hopkins on a setup from Draisaitl and McDavid, then going down 2-0 as Andrew Mangiapane scored with his new team against his former team.
When Draisaitl made it 3-0 on the power play, converting a behind-the-back pass from David Tomasek at 8:32 of the second period, it appeared the Oilers would cruise to victory and get off to the good start they longed for the last couple of seasons.
“I thought when we were playing on top of them, when we were playing fast and simple there was a lot of things to like,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “But obviously the first one, you’d like to close that one out. There’s lots to like but also a lot to learn.”
