CALGARY: Patrick Maroon scored to give the Oilers a five-goal advantage in the opening minutes of the final period, and they held on to beat the Flames 7-5 on Saturday night.

Jesse Puljujarvi had two goals in the first period, and Jujhar Khaira, Mark Letestu, Milan Lucic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton, which led 6-1 after Maroon’s goal 1:29 into the third.

Sam Bennett scored twice, and Micheal Ferland and Johnny Gaudreau once each to pull the Flames to 6-5 with 7:40 remaining.

“The first five minutes we were on them and got pucks in and got the forecheck and then they got one, they got two, they got three, they got four,” Maroon said. “My heart skipped a beat there for a second on the fifth goal.”

Nugent-Hopkins sealed the Oilers’ sixth straight win against the Flames with just more than a minute left.

“It’s been a good streak right now. We want to keep that rolling,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously a divisional team and a natural rivalry with the Alberta thing. We take pride in these games and we come out really hard.”

Mikael Frolik had a short-handed goal in the first for Calgary.

Laurent Brossoit made 29 saves for Edmonton, including a blocker save on Gaudreau’s attempt to tie it on a 2-on-1 break. The Flames also failed to capitalize on a power play with six minutes left.

“Our resilience right now is really good. Other than tonight, we’ve been down in every game for the past three and the way we fought back has been a really good sign for us. It’s something we did really well last year,” Nugent-Hopkins said.

Mike Smith stopped 22 shots for Calgary through two periods before giving way to David Rittich, who stopped four of the six shots he faced in the third. The 19-year-old Puljujarvi opened the scoring 10:29 into the first when the puck caromed to him off the end boards after Drake Caggiula missed the net on his slap shot.

Four minutes later, Eric Gryba’s shot went through the holder of Mark Giordano’s skate then changed directions again off Puljujarvi’s leg before trickling through Smith’s pads to make it 2-0.

Asociated Press