Stempniak, Bouwmeester star as Flames scorch Oilers

Calgary, AB, Canada (4E Sports) – Winger Lee Stempniak tallied a goal and two assists and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester had two points as the Calgary Flames downed the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3, for their first win Saturday at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Miikka Kiprusoff had 17 saves for the Flames (1-3), who defeated the Oilers for the 12th time in their last 13 visits to Calgary.

“It’s fun playing them,” Bouwmeester said. “It’s almost [more fun] playing them there because you have all your friends and your family there and all that, but I grew up there, I know what the rivalry is like.”

Mikael Backlund scored his second goal of the season and Curtis Glencross added his third goal as coach Bob Hartley clinched his first win with the Flames.

“The players gave me the game puck and I would like to share that with the fans, because I know we went three months without hockey… this win is for us, but also for our great fans,” Hartley said.

Sam Gagner had a goal and assist while goaltender Devan Dubnyk had 31 saves for the Oilers, who dropped to 2-2.

“We couldn’t seem to get anything going and games are going to be like that sometimes,” Dubnyk said. “This is a tough building to play in and they’re a good hockey team – especially at home.”

The Oilers have yet to lead at any point in a game, covering a span of 248 minutes and one second. Edmonton’s two wins were both come-from-behind victories, beating Vancouver via shootout and Los Angeles in overtime.

“Getting behind all the time – especially on the road – you’re going to have trouble consistently taking points out of that so we need to rectify that and work on that quickly,” Oilers coach Ralph Krueger said.

The Flames wasted little time as they grabbed a 2-0 lead behind goals by Backland and Bouwmeester.

The Oilers got one goal back after Justin Schultz’s wrist shot from the point snuck through Kiprusoff with 40.6 seconds left in the period to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Calgary regained a two-goal lead 3:59 into the second period when Glencross scored his third goal of the season.

Jordan Eberle delivered a power-play score for his third goal of the game to make it 3-2, but the Flames answered with their own power-play goal from Lee Stempniak.

Gagner, who tallied the overtime winner against Los Angeles, scored with 1.4 seconds left.

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