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‘The best player won this series’

JIM MATHESON

In the end, it looked like a hohum chore for the Edmonton Oilers taking care of the Calgary Flames in the first Battle of Alberta playoff in three decades — somewhere between tying up the trash before sending it down the garbage chute and sorting through the junk mail.

But the sixth instalment of the post-season Battle of Alberta, and first since 1991, was an offensive tug of war with 45 goals over five games, and 32 in three at the Saddledome, where team defence was pretty much a rumour.

In the wild series clincher Thursday, there were two goals by each team in 71 seconds, an NHL record by 22 seconds, and the Oilers managed to out-last the Flames 5-4 on Connor Mcdavid’s OT winner. It came predictably off Leon Draisaitl’s fourth assist of the night and 17th point in the series as the Oilers won it 4-1.

This last one wasn’t pretty, because the Oilers had to survive a fortuitous video replay to wipe out a goal by Blake Coleman off his skate with five and and half minutes left. But it ended up being a portrait in persistence by the Oilers, who were down two in Game 5 and refused to go away, and now play Colorado or St. Louis in the NHL’S Final Four — the first time they’ve gotten that far since 2006.

“The best player won this series,” offered up Calgary coach Darryl Sutter, who was thinking No. 97, but could have tag-teamed his postgame analysis with No. 29 Draisaitl too.

“He’s (Mcdavid) everything to us. He’s our leader, he’s our go-to guy,” said Draisaitl. “He’s the guy that everyone looks up to when you need him. He’s done it all season. He’s done it all his career. Last two months or last month or whatever, it has been, he’s been amazing for us. Eventually you just kind of run out of words.”

Mcdavid needed a thesaurus too, as he described the emotions of his winner.

“Tough to put into words what that meant to me (shortside 20-footer on Jacob Markstrom, who gave up at least four goals in every game),” said Mcdavid, who didn’t have a point (breaking his run of multiple point games at seven) until his heroics 5:03 into the extra period–only the Oilers second shot.

“Just tried to get my legs going. They weren’t moving all that well tonight,” said Mcdavid. “But I got in on the fore-check, got the puck to Leo. Usually when the puck goes to Leo something good’s going to happen. Tried to get open and he made a great play as always. Just had a little second and tried to shoot it and it found a way in.”

“The guys did a great job of hanging in there all night… certainly not our best effort. Terrific performances from lots of guys (Zach Hyman had a goal, two helpers and seven shots, scoring for the fifth straight game). I’m happy contribute on a night when maybe I didn’t have my best,” said Mcdavid.

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2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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