Cooley makes 36 saves, Flames hold off Oilers

CALGARY -- Devin Cooley made 36 saves, and the Calgary Flames held on for a 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday.

“It was honestly really fun,” said Cooley, who also had an assist for his first NHL point. “It’s a lot more fun when it’s not a blowout, especially a rivalry like this.

“The last time I played these guys it was with San Jose (Sharks) in the regular season and we lost 9-1. That was not fun. Those are the games where it’s like, ‘OK, get me out of here. I’m not really enjoying it.’ I’m glad I was able to get some redemption. I’m glad that tonight went a lot better than that one.”

Matvei Gridin had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Huberdeau, Connor Zary and Ryan Lomberg scored for the Flames (23-27-6), who have alternated wins and losses for the past four games. MacKenzie Weegar, Nazem Kadri and Zach Whitecloud each had two assists.

“We wanted to end on a win and what better way to do it against those guys,” Lomberg said. “It’s the Battle of Alberta, the best rivalry in hockey. It’s always easy to get up for this one and obviously I love scoring on them and watching them lose.”

Leon Draisaitl scored twice, Evan Bouchard had three assists, and Kasperi Kapanen had a goal for the Oilers (28-22-8), who have lost three straight, including 5-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Tristan Jarry made 21 saves.

“We’re different teams,” Draisaitl said in regards to the struggles Edmonton has faced after making it to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. “We’re not the same team. We’re not as good right now. We’re not even close. We need to understand that. It’s time. Obviously, there’s a break now, but when we come back, we’ve got to get going.”

Huberdeau opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 3:12 of the first period. Weegar fed a pass to Huberdeau in the right face-off circle, where he beat Jarry to the far side with a snap shot.

“Obviously, it was nice to find the back of the net,” said Huberdeau, who borrowed one of Gridin’s sticks. “He was surprised I was going to use it. He thought I was kidding.”

Draisaitl tied it 1-1 on the power play at 5:14, skating in from the bottom of the left circle and roofing a shot over Cooley's right shoulder.

Gridin put the Flames back up 2-1 at 14:44 with a power-play goal. Weegar sent a stretch pass to Gridin, who collected the puck off his skate to his stick, skated into the offensive zone and beat Jarry's blocker with a snap shot from the left circle.

“He picked that up off his foot and he’s basically in full stride and then to shoot the puck the way he did in that situation is a talented play,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said.

Zary pushed the lead to 3-1 at 11:43 of the second period. Whitecloud’s one-timer from the blue line deflected in off Zary, who was set up at the front of the net.

“The timing on that screen, [it’s a] very difficult save to make,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said.

Draisaitl cut the deficit to 3-2 with his second power-play goal at 18:26. He one-timed a pass from Bouchard from a sharp angle along the goal line to the right of the net past a lunging Cooley. Bouchard's assist was his 300th point in the NHL.

Kapanen tied it 3-3 at 4:17 of the third period when his wrist shot from above the right circle bounced off Cooley’s right arm and then his right pad and rolled into the net.

“In the second period, I had some pretty lucky bounces a couple times,” Cooley said. “That was an unlucky bounce. That happens sometimes. I’m just glad I was able to get some lucky bounces to even it out.”

Lomberg gave the Flames a 4-3 lead at 6:44. He kicked a bouncing puck on net and tapped his own rebound past Jary’s right skate from in front.

“I think I could do a better job, just kind of keeping it closer to me, maybe absorbing it a little better and hopefully it doesn’t go back out,” Jarry said. “It just kind of pinballed on us and it ended up in our net.”

NOTES: Kadri factored on a game-winning goal for the 43rd time since joining Calgary in 2022-23, the most among all Flames skaters over that span. … Gridin became the first teenager to post a multipoint game for Calgary since Matthew Tkachuk had five multipoint outings in 2017-18. ... Draisaitl now has 1,036 career points (428 goals, 608 assists), passing Mark Messier (1,034) for fourth place on the Oilers’ all-time points list. ... Bouchard hit the 300-point mark in 405 games and became the second-fastest defenseman to reach the milestone with Edmonton behind Paul Coffey (294 games). He also recorded his eighth three-point game of 2025-26 which is the most in a single season by an Oilers defenseman since Coffey (nine in 1986-87).