Flames rally for victory over Oilers, continue streak of season-opening wins

EDMONTON – The Calgary Flames continued their habit of starting strong, even if they needed a couple breaks to keep their season-opening win streak alive.

Nazem Kadri scored the shootout winner in the eighth round to lift Calgary to a 4-3 victory over the rival Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

Matvei Gridin, Connor Zary and Blake Coleman scored in regulation as the Flames erased a 3-0 deficit to spoil Edmonton’s home opener.

“I don’t know why we have to make it so dramatic, but on the road it’s never easy to be a visiting team during a home-opener,” Kadri said. “We came out flying, were able to sustain the pressure and kind of build our game from there. So, it’s a character win.”

Calgary had scored five or more goals in each of its previous three season-openers — all wins — but fell short of becoming just the sixth team in NHL history to reach the mark in four consecutive seasons.

The Flames’ good fortune kicked in after Edmonton took a 3-0 lead on goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, former Flame Andrew Mangiapane and Leon Draisaitl, who buried his 400th.

Gridin, a 19-year-old Russian rookie and Calgary’s 28th overall draft pick in 2024, scored in his NHL debut 12:40 into the second period. He benefited from a lucky bounce as a pass to the middle hit an Oilers defender’s skate and deflected past Skinner from distance.

“I tried to pass it backdoor to Matty (Coronato), it went off some guy’s skate and in the back of the net. So, I’ll take it,” Gridin said. “It’s unreal. I know a couple years ago, I played on PS (PlayStation), and now I’m in there. So, it feels nice. A great opponent, the other team. You never forget your first game and your first goal.”

Gridin is the 29th Flame to score in his NHL debut.

Calgary pulled to within one with 5:13 left in the second period as Zary batted a bouncing puck out of the air and into the net for a power-play goal. The goal survived a video review to determine if it was a high stick.

The Flames then tied it up just 40 seconds into the third on a dreadful giveaway by Stuart Skinner. The Oilers goalie struggled to handle a bouncing puck, then lost it while trying to make a play and ultimately coughed it up to Coleman for the goal.

“It’s a big win, it galvanizes the team,” 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.”

Skinner admitted it wasn’t his finest moment.

“It was one bad decision, and it makes you look really bad and that’s kind of how it goes,” Skinner said. “Their first goal was pretty fluky and I think their second one was pretty borderline. Honestly, I felt good about my game, and I will say that how we played defensively tonight was superb.”

Dustin Wolf made 32 stops and added seven saves in the shootout for the Flames. Skinner recorded just 19 saves for the Oilers but stopped six shooters in the shootout.

“I like the way we stuck with it,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “We found ourselves behind the 8-ball early, but I thought we got better as the night went on. There was really no quit and we started to play the right way in the second period, we started to establish our forecheck a little bit more than we did in the first period and it allowed us to play a bit quicker than we did earlier in the game.”

Both teams face the Vancouver Canucks next. The Flames visit Vancouver on Thursday night before the Canucks head to Edmonton on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.