Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the game winner with 3:27 left in the third as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 5-3 Tuesday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers lead the series 3-1 It took the Oilers only 21 seconds to grab the lead. Jacob Markstrom turned the puck over at the side of the net, allowing Nugent-Hopkins to flick in his third of the post-season. ”He kind of falls under the radar in terms of really good hockey players on our team,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said. “But Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was a first-overall draft pick in the NHL for a reason. “He’s a heck of a hockey player.
He does a lot of subtle things very well and he makes us a deeper team.” On a power play halfway through the first, Zach Hyman muscled in a rebound for his seventh.
The Oilers survived a big push from the Flames late in the first, then took a 3-0 lead on Evander Kane’s eleventh. ”I don’t think we played our best period, by any means,” Oilers goaltender Mike Smith said. “We stuck together as a group and never wavered, and we found a way to win a game.