The good news is that the Baby Oilers took down the Baby Flames in the rookie camp version of the Battle of Alberta on Saturday night by a score of 4-3.
The bad news is that defence prospect Dmitri Samorukov left the game early after a couple of big collisions. There’s an added worry when it comes to Samorukov because he missed a decent chunk of his 2020-21 KHL season due to a shoulder injury.
Also, late in the game, 2021 first-round pick Xavier Bourgault took a nasty hit from behind into the boards. We don’t yet know the status of either player.

What happened…

  • The Flames went up 2-0 early in the game. In the opening five minutes, Walker Duehr took a shot and buried his own rebound past Olivier Rodrigue to give the Flames a 1-0 lead. Just about 30 seconds later, Ryan Francis snapped in another goal to double Calgary’s lead at 2-0.
  • Undrafted prospect Henry Rybinski from the Seattle Thunderbirds got the Oilers on the board in the first period and Edmonton came out of the frame down 3-1…
  • The Oilers were down 3-2 in the second period but stormed back thanks to a pair of goals from a player who you generally wouldn’t expect to produce offence. Defensive defender Phil Kemp, the team’s seventh-round pick from the 2017 draft, fired in a shot from a tough angle to knot things up at 3-3. In the third period, it was Kemp yet again ripping home a goal from a difficult angle…
  • Kemp and Rybinski were the star players offensively for the Oilers as they each buried a pair of goals in the 4-3 win. Ostap Safin was another notable name from the game as he picked up a pair of assists. He also endeared himself to fans on Twitter after the game by posting this…
  • Here’s what head coach Jay Woodcroft had to say after the win…
“I thought it was a competitive game,” Woodcroft said. “There was lots of good in that game; the effort, the enthusiasm and try were there. We made some mistakes, but the team, a group that’s only been together for three days, found a way to come back and make it a game. Then, they found a way to win it in the third period.
“If I look at the game as a whole, I don’t think we started the game very well. I thought we were slow out of the gate, and give credit to Calgary’s rookies. I thought they were very good in the first period. We found a way to tighten up our shift lengths and start to shoot the puck in the second and third periods. We were rewarded. I thought our power play was good tonight, the penalty kill did some good things, and at the end of the day, we’ve got some mistakes to clean up. But moving forward, there are some things to build on.”

Up next…

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The Oilers and Flames will meet again on Monday night at the Scotiabank Arena in Calgary. Puck drop will be right after 6:00 PM mountain time. Main camp will begin on Wednesday and a handful of the rookies from this squad will look to try to crack the Oilers’ roster.