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Flames Prospects Sweep Oilers

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RED DEER – A clean sweep.

The Flames Rookies beat the Oilers Rookies 6-3 Wednesday night to win the second of a two-game set between the clubs. Calgary skated to a 7-3 victory Sunday at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Game 1.

Dmitry Zavgorodniy scored a pair, while D’Artagnan Joly, Adam Ruzicka, Glenn Gawdin, and Brett Pollock also tallied for the Flames.

Tyler Parsons played the first period and a half of the tilt, making 12 saves on 13 shots, before Mason McDonald came in to close it out, stopping 10 of the 12 shots he faced.

Luke Esposito, Cameron Hebig and Evan Polei had the Oilers marker.

While a lot of Flames shone in Wednesday’s win, Dillon Dube stood out with dominant play right from his first shift.

“Competitive game, fast game and he was able to rise above it with that speed, and I think that’s what separates him,” said Stockton Heat head coach Cail MacLean, the bench boss for the two-game set. “He had a stutter step at one point in the second period that it didn’t look like he should be able to do that and he was able to find his way around a guy at the last minute. He’s pretty smooth and he’s got really good edges and that came through tonight.”

The Golden, B.C., product – drafted in the second round, 56th overall in 2016 – centred a line with Spencer Foo and Andrew Mangiapane that was stellar in combining for five points in a 7-3 win over the Oilers Rookies Sunday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Both Foo and Mangiapane got the night off Wednesday, with Dube skating between Zavgorodniy and Mike McMurty.

“Yes, I agree,” said MacLean, when asked if Dube, showing the mark of a good player, made his linemates better in the win. “A rising tide lifts all boats and he definitely did that tonight. Both his wingers played well, for sure, but at the same time he, with that speed and that presence of mind in the middle of the ice, he’s able to distribute and find guys with speed and then they can make their plays because they are getting pucks at the right time.”

Dube said the transition to a pair of new wingers was an easy one.

“The legs felt good today, and I think Merch and Z, my linemates, were good today, they were skating fast and made it a lot easier for me. It’s good we found chemistry right away … if you can really click with your line it helps out a lot.”

Brett Pollock – who tallied twice in the win Sunday – came close to opening the scoring less than a minute into the contest on a two-on-one when he took a cross-ice feed from Dillon Dube but wasn’t able to steer it home.

Zavgorodniy later broke the goose egg, scoring 8:25 into the opening frame when he took a pass from Dube as he streaked down the right wing, beat his defender and then froze Edmonton goalie Olivier Rodrigue before tucking a backhand around him.

Joly was Johnny on the Spot at the 14:23 mark, when Rodrigue made a save on a Ruzicka shot but the rebound eventually slipped out between the legs of an Oilers defenceman into the slot and right onto the stick of the 2017 sixth-round pick who put it into an open cage.

Dube brought the crowd to its feet with an incredible no-look pass that set up Zavgorodniy’s second marker with 3:42 left to play in the first, backhanding a puck out of the air from behind the Oilers net that the Russian one-timed as he skated into the high slot.

With just over a minute left in the opening frame, Esposito got one past Parsons with a spinning backhand that found twine.

Hebig closed the gap to one for the Oilers in the second when he took a pass and wired a shot from the right faceoff circle that went high, far-side past McDonald.

Less than three-minutes later, a turnover by the Flames in the Oilers zone led to a two-on-one break, with Polei making good on a pass from Dmitri Samorukov to tie it up.

Defenceman Jake Christiansen took a hit but made a great pass just outside the Oilers blueline 5:42 into the third period, springing Ruzicka on a breakaway and he made no mistake, going forehand/backhand and slipping the puck past Stuart Skinner, who had taken over between the Oiler pipes.

It took not one, not two, but three cracks at the puck by three different Flames off an odd-man rush on a powerplay before Gawdin snapped the puck into the net to make it 5-3 with 7:58 to play.

Pollock scored on another powerplay less than two minutes later to round out the scoring in the contest.

“I think for us, (it was a) tryout mentality, too, a lot of guys wanted to show what they have,” said Dube. “It’s the last chance to do that going into main camp. So I think a lot of guys stepped up.”

 

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