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Edmonton Oilers centre Connor McDavid and Calgary Flames left wing Matthew Tkachuk exchange words during the first period in Game 1 of the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome. The Flames won 9-6 on May 18, 2022.Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

As far as conflicts go, the first installment of the Battle of Alberta in 31 years was definitely of the Wild West shootout variety. Having scored just 15 goals in a seven-game opening-series win over the Dallas Stars, the Calgary Flames managed more than half that total Wednesday, outdueling their rivals from up north in a 9-6 Game 1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Matthew Tkachuk had a hat trick and Johnny Gaudreau had three assists as the Pacific Division champions held on to draw first blood in the best-of-seven series. The game was the highest-scoring playoff game since the Flames and Los Angeles Kings shared 15 goals in Game 6 of the 1993 division final.

Despite preaching a defence-first system that gave up the third-fewest goals in the National Hockey League during the regular season, Flames head coach Darryl Sutter was able to find humour in the scoring deluge.

“We were told it was a boring series last time,” he said after drawing level with the late Pat Quinn with 94 playoff victories.

“So I told the players yesterday they’ve got to score seven to 10 goals today, knowing full well that they’d score five to eight and that’s what we’d need to win, so that’s what they did.”

Edmonton captain Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists for his first career four-point game to boost his playoff-leading point total to 18 in eight games. Once both teams have had a chance to reload, they will meet again Friday for Game 2.

“Obviously you’re not going to win many games if you get scored on nine times, there’s no secret to that,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said.

Strong winds around the Saddledome had forced the cancellation of Wednesday’s Red Lot viewing party in the hours leading up to the game. While that potentially took some of the buzz out of a day that the province of Alberta had waited 31 years for, and had eagerly anticipated ever since Gaudreau’s overtime series winner against the Dallas Stars set it up, the atmosphere inside the Saddledome was red hot.

Flames legends such as Lanny McDonald and Colin Patterson were in the crowd, while Matthew Tkachuk’s brother, Brady, the Ottawa Senators winger, was also on hand to help get the party started. Meanwhile the in-house DJ was doing his part to fuel the anticipation, spinning eighties hits such as Phil Collins’s In The Air Tonight, a song that had its heyday just before the Battle of Alberta became a going concern.

Following the morning skates, both teams had denied that the regular-season series – which was tied 2-2 – would have any carryover into the second-round series. Given the intensity of the playoffs, there was widespread denial that there would be any repeat of their most recent matchup, when both teams combined for 14 goals in a 9-5 Calgary win on March 26. As it turned out, they were absolutely right. They would go one better.

It’s not something they’ll be looking to repeat.

“That’s not our style of game, 9-6,” two-goal scorer Blake Coleman said. “It’s great that we got the Game 1 win, but there’s a lot to dissect tomorrow.”

Offence is only half the battle, however. One of the big questions coming into this series was whether both goaltenders could replicate their play from the first round.

Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom, who was nominated for the Vezina Trophy last week, had given the Flames a strong platform against the Dallas Stars, averaging a playoff-leading 1.53 goals-against average with a .943 save percentage. Mike Smith, in the Edmonton net, had been almost as good, posting a .938 save percentage along with two shutouts, the most in the playoffs through the first round.

That question was answered within the first six minutes and five seconds, and ended with Smith sitting at the end of the Oilers bench with Mikko Koskinen seeing his first playing time of this year’s postseason.

During that spell, the Flames had torched Smith for three goals on just 10 shots, including two inside the first 51 seconds. It went a long way to show that this would be a very different series that Calgary’s opening round against Dallas, where the team had to wait until their third game, with 143 minutes and 40 seconds of game time under its belt, before it scored its third goal of that series.

On the first shot of the game, just 26 seconds in, Elias Lindholm took a pass from Rasmus Andersson, controlled a bobbling puck and wristed it in off the pad of Smith. Gaudreau, the Flames leading playoff scorer, also earned an assist on the play for his ninth point of the postseason.

The lead was doubled just 25 seconds later, when Mikael Backlund passed the puck out from behind the net to Andrew Mangiapane, who beat Smith with the simplest of wrist shots. The two goals inside the opening 51 seconds established a new NHL record for the fastest two goals from the start of a playoff game, bettering two goals in 54 seconds from Mario Lemieux and Rick Tocchet for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1993. Brett Ritchie added to the Flames hot start with another just after the six-minute mark.

“If you go down 2-0 before it hits the 19-minute mark on the clock, it’s obviously not a good start,” Draisaitl said. “Clearly we weren’t ready and it’s tough to play catchup for the whole night.”

While it was tough, with McDavid on a team it’s certainly not impossible. The captain scored on an individual effort shortly before the period’s halfway point and helped set the stage for a wild, seven-goal second period.

Coleman restored the Flames’ three-goal advantage just 45 seconds in, and increased the margin to 5-1 with his second of the playoffs shortly after. But Edmonton started to inch its way back through Evan Bouchard, and despite Tkachuk scoring his first of the night on the power play, two goals from Zach Hyman and another from Draisaitl with 38.1 seconds left in the frame had the Oilers within striking distance.

A Kailer Yamamoto goal 1:28 into the third period threatened to grease the wheels for one of the biggest comebacks in NHL playoff history – only four teams have ever having accomplished the feat after trailing by four goals. But a wrist shot from Andersson – one of three points he had on the night - and a breakaway from Tkachuk, where he seized on a turnover and beat Koskinen through the five-hole, eased the anxiety somewhat. The Flames winger added an empty netter for his first career playoff hat trick, paving the way for a series-opening win.

“Not good,” was how he reacted after becoming the sixth different Flames player to score a playoff hat trick, and first since Theo Fleury had four in a 1995 playoff game.

“We’ve got to be better with leads. We had a four-goal lead twice; that should be enough for the playoffs.”

Markstrom finished with 22 saves on 28 shots, while Koskinen ended with 32 saves on 37 shots.

With both teams combining for just 18 penalty minutes through the first 59 minutes and change, Milan Lucic and Zack Kassian dropped the gloves, while Backlund and Josh Archibald also followed suit just before the final horn.

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