Edmonton came put of the gate strong to start the 2025-26 season, but Calgary was able to mount a comeback with the help of some lucky bounces and a sloppy third period start.

The Battle of Alberta started out as about as tame as possible, with no action for the first ten minutes. Morgan Frost took the first penalty of the night after sending the puck over the glass, and the Oilers were able to capitalize. McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins combined their efforts on a passing play to open the scoring for the night.

David Tomasek, Edmonton’s offseason pick up from the Swedish Hockey League, took a tripping call shortly thereafter, but Edmonton was able to kill off the penalty with relative ease.

Andrew Mangiapane quickly made a good impression in Edmonton, scoring his first goal as an Oiler against his former Calgary squad with a snap shot, assisted by McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins.

In the second period Adam Klapka took a hooking call against McDavid, and Edmonton again made Calgary pay the price for going to the box. Leon Draisaitl lost his defender during the power play and was left wide open to wrist in his 400th goal in the NHL.

This game was going all Edmonton, but then the wheels began to fall off.

Matvei Gridin scored his first NHL goal off a freak bounce – his spin pass went centering backwards up to the blue line and deflected off of Noah Philp’s stick, directly past Stuart Skinner. It was a lucky goal, but it was enough to build momentum.

David Tomasek took his second penalty of the night, and Calgary was able to find their second goal of the night. Connor Zary batted down the puck through a heavy scramble at the crease. The goal was reviewed for a high stick, but evidence was inconclusive and the call on the ice standed.

Only forty seconds in to the third period the puck was flying towards the Edmonton net and was blocked by Stuart Skinner. Skinner kept the puck open for Evan Bouchard, but Bouchard opted not to play the puck. Blake Coleman was barreled right towards Skinner, who completely froze. Coleman was much obliged to take the donation and tapped the puck between Skinner’s legs for free. The game was tied 3-3 now, but it felt like a Calgary win at this point.

The match went to an eight round shootout where Nazem Kadri would find the game winning goal.

All in all, the game could have gone worse. The last two season openers have seen Edmonton dropping 6+ goals against with little to no hope of ever winning the game. The Oilers at least managed to get a point this time around.

With that being said, if this is the goaltending we can expect this season, there is going to be a lot of commentary about Skinner’s future on the team.

The Oilers play their next home game against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.