Lindholm scores twice, Flames rally past Oilers 4-2

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Elias Lindholm scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and the Calgary Flames rallied from two down to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Saturday night.

After deflecting Noah Hanifin's point shot into Mikko Koskinen's pads, Lindholm knocked in the rebound at 9:10 of the third. He added an empty-netter for his 11th goal of the season — his career high is 17.

Sean Monahan, with a goal and an assist, and Derek Ryan also scored for Calgary.

Connor McDavid and Alex Chiasson scored for Edmonton, which has lost five of six.

Down 2-1 entering the third period, Calgary tied it at 2:40 when Monahan rattled home a rebound of Travis Hamonic's shot.

It was the sixth time the Flames have come back to win when trailing after two periods, most in the NHL.

They were down 2-0 until late in the second. Calgary cut its deficit in half at 16:23 on its fifth power play when Ryan scored on a backhand, his second goal of the season and first in 15 games.

Until then, the Flames' listless power play had given up just as many shots as it had generated, with two of the three allowed being breakaways.

Standing tall in net was David Rittich, who improved to 6-1-0. Included in his 24 stops were three breakaways — two for Leon Draisaitl and one by Jujhar Khaira.

Koskinen, who turned aside 33 shots, fell to 4-2-0.

Edmonton increased its lead to 2-0 at 3:49 of the second when Draisaitl set up McDavid on a perfectly executed 2-on-1. Rittich had no chance to get across and stop the one-timer.

The Oilers took the lead 2:29 into the game while short-handed. Playing against his former team, Chiasson broke in off the wing and slipped a backhand through Rittich's pads.

It was a physical game, especially early, with Mikael Backlund and McDavid wrestling at one point. Sam Bennett and Darnell Nurse squared off after Bennett, on the first shift of the game, rocked the Oilers defenseman with a heavy hit.

Matthew Tkachuk was in the middle of the action, getting jumped by Zack Kassian late in the first period, which drew a triple minor for roughing and a misconduct on the Oilers' rugged forward.

NOTES: Dillon Dube (concussion) returned to the lineup after missing four games. ... Ryan Spooner made his debut for Edmonton after being acquired Friday in a trade with the New York Rangers for Ryan Strome. Spooner played left wing on a line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ty Rattie. ... Right wing Patrick Russell made his NHL debut for the Oilers.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Return home to play Vegas on Sunday night.

Flames: Continue their homestand Monday night against Vegas.

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