Oilers go up in flames against Calgary

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers hit rock bottom on Saturday night.

At least they hope they did.

After losing 3-1 at home to the 30th-place Buffalo Sabres in their previous game, the Oilers responded by getting destroyed 8-1 at home by their provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames.

"It's pretty obvious how bad we played tonight," left winger David Perron said after the Oilers were booed off their own ice. "We're obviously pretty frustrated. It's pretty embarrassing. I don't think there's much to be said, we all know how bad it was."

The Flames scored four goals in 3:05 span in the second period to put the Oilers out of their misery before the game was half over.

It was so bad that an Oilers fan threw his sweater on the ice midway through the third period.

"We could not recover. We tried everything and it just went deeper and deeper," Oilers coach Dallas Eakins said. "That was the longest last 15 minutes of a game that I've ever been involved with. I apologize to the fans who were here tonight who had to watch that. It was painful on the bench and I'm sure it was painful in the stands."

The Oilers scored first, then disappeared for good.

A power play that had been struggling so terribly in recent weeks scored for the fourth straight game when defenseman Jeff Petry's point shot with the man-advantage eluded Flames goaltender Karri Ramo at 4:34 of the first period. Flames defenseman Mark Giordano got that one back four minutes later and it was 1-1 after 20 minutes.

The Flames were playing their second game in as many nights after dropping a 6-5 decision to the Nashville Predators on Friday night, but it did not seem to bother them much.

"What a great game," Flames coach Bob Hartley said. "We wanted to redeem ourselves from (Friday) night's game. We had a good video session this morning. I could see that the boys were not very impressed with the performance from last night. We just worked very simple, we were very effective and we scored some great goals."

Lots of them.

Calgary exploded in the second period, leaving the ice after 40 minutes with a 5-1 lead after goals from center Mike Cammalleri at 4:13, center Matt Stajan at 5:20, center Paul Byron at 6:00 and left winger Curtis Glencross at 7:18 to spell the end of Edmonton starting goalie Viktor Fasth.

"There was a 10-minute span where we got outworked, made some bad decisions and it came back to bite us," Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "And once we got down by a few goals, we let our guard down and they capitalized on that, too."

And, just like that, the Oilers were done.

But the Flames were not.

Both teams have been at the bottom of the Western Conference all season -- the Flames are 29-36-7 and the Oilers are 25-38-9 -- but that has not diluted their mutual dislike.

The Flames piled on in the third period. Glencross made it 6-1 at 4:50, right winger Kevin Westgarth made it 7-1 just 37 seconds later and Glencross completed the hat trick with five minutes to go in the third.

"It was a great game, a complete team game. We didn't give up too much and we stuck to our game plan," Glencross said. "We had all four lines going for the 60 minutes and it was good for Ramo to get a win in his first game back he played really well for us. It's nice to get everyone back and get rolling again."

To make matters worse, midway through the second period, Oilers left winger Taylor Hall fired a water bottle at the ground and it exploded, showering Eakins and associate coach Keith Acton. Hall did not get another shift for 13 minutes.

Both parties downplayed the confrontation.

"It's an emotional game and in a game like that frustrations start to run high," Eakins said. "That's what it was. I've had bigger run-ins than that with players this year. If you're not able to move on, you've got big problems."

NOTES: The Oilers welcomed RW Jordan Eberle back to the fold after he sat out Thursday's loss to Buffalo with a sore knee. ... With the return to health of G Karri Ramo (knee), the Flames sent G Joni Ortio back to Abbotsford in the American Hockey League. ... Calgary RW Jiri Hudler is back after missing seven games with an upper-body injury. ... Flames rookie LW Kenny Agostino is the eighth Calgary player to make his NHL debut this season. ... RW Nail Yakupov, out two games so far with a sore ankle, still is not ready for the Oilers. ... Forty-two of the Flames' first 71 games were decided by one goal. They are 20-15-7 in those games.