Oilers vs. Flames: Connor McDavid Sets the Season-Opening Assist Streak Record as Tristan Jarry Blanks Calgary

Wayne Gretzky has held a share of this particular NHL record since 1982-83. On Wednesday night in Edmonton, Connor McDavid took it for himself, and he did it in a Battle of Alberta, because of course he did.

McDavid picked up two assists to stretch his season-opening assist streak to 13 games, an NHL record, and Tristan Jarry turned away all 24 shots he faced as the Edmonton Oilers blanked the Calgary Flames 4-0 at Rogers Place. The Battle of Alberta was not much of a battle by the end.

A Quick Strike and an Ugly Collision

Edmonton did not need long to find its first goal, or many shots. On the Oilers' first shot of the night, at 7:46 of the first period, McDavid threaded a feed over from the right dot and Mathieu Joseph slipped it under Devin Cooley's right arm. Evan Bouchard picked up the other assist. Streak extended to 13 games. Record broken, and the first period was not even half over.

The period ended badly for Calgary. Cooley was injured when Oilers forward Colton Dach ran him over in the crease with 12 seconds left, a play that drew a goaltender interference penalty. Cooley had stopped eight of nine shots. Dustin Wolf came on to start the second.

"Obviously, I don't want to take a goalie out. That's not my intent," Dach said afterward.

Calgary's lone power play from that penalty came up empty, and early in the second Mattias Ekholm doubled the lead. At 4:52, the defenseman fired from the point, the puck clanged off the crossbar and in, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had the assist. 2-0.

Flames coach Ryan Huska summed up the first 40 minutes: "For two periods it was a really hard game, there was not a lot of room on the ice, it was more of a grind-type game," he said.

The Turning Point: 21 Seconds That Ended It

Calgary was still within two entering the third. That lasted 55 seconds. Kevin Bahl tripped Leon Draisaitl 39 seconds in, and on the ensuing power play McDavid found Kasperi Kapanen on the back side of the crease, where he lifted the puck over Wolf's outstretched pad. At 1:16, Jason Dickinson won a puck battle with Jake Middleton on the right-side wall and fed Alex Formenton in the slot, and Formenton beat Wolf glove side.

Two goals, 21 seconds apart. Ballgame, as they say in another sport. The rest of the night was a formality.

McDavid Keeps Doing McDavid Things

Let's take stock of the captain. Two assists, giving him 28 on the season to go with eight goals, for an NHL-leading 36 points. His season-opening point streak is also at 13 games. The 12-game assist mark he broke had been shared by Sebastian Aho (2018-19), Ken Linseman (1985-86) and Gretzky (1982-83), per NHL.com.

There is more. NHL.com noted it was McDavid's second career 25-assist month, joining Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as the only players in league history to do that more than once, and that he is now four games shy of his career-long point streak of 17.

McDavid, naturally, made it about the team. "We wanted to win the game, that was first and foremost," he said. "Calgary had been playing really, really well and scoring lots of goals. We had to defend hard and find a way to get a win."

Jarry was the other headliner. His 24 saves gave him his first shutout of the season and the 24th of his career, according to NHL.com, and he passed the credit forward. "I think any time you can blank the board like that, it also gives credit to the team in front," Jarry said. "I think they did a great job, they kept everything to the outside and they made it easy for me."

Nugent-Hopkins finished with two assists in 18:23. Bouchard logged 22:12 and finished plus-2, and Ekholm's goal was the 11th by an Oilers defenseman this season, tying Utah for the most in the NHL, per NHL.com. Joseph, Kapanen and Formenton supplied the rest of the scoring. One Oilers streak did die on a good night: Leon Draisaitl's point streak ended at seven games, per NHL.com, though he did draw the penalty that set up Kapanen's goal.

Oilers coach Mike Babcock liked the full-roster effort. "The big thing tonight is we had a good team game, everybody was involved," he said.

The Numbers That Matter

• 24-for-24. Jarry's night, perfect from start to finish.
• 32-24. Edmonton held the shot edge and dominated physically, outhitting Calgary 28-19.
• 1-for-2 vs. 0-for-1. Edmonton converted the power play that mattered; Calgary did nothing with its one chance after the Dach penalty.
• 54.7 percent. Calgary actually won the faceoff battle, 29-24. It did not matter.
• 20-for-23. Wolf's line in 40 minutes of relief. Not his fault the floodgates opened.

What It Means

Edmonton improves to 9-2-2 with 20 points and 4-2-2 at home. The Oilers had lost two straight for the first time this season, a 7-2 home loss to Toronto and a shootout loss to Detroit, and this was the clean, low-drama response they needed.

Calgary falls to 5-7-0 with 10 points and 1-4-0 on the road. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak, built on home wins over Carolina, Minnesota, Detroit and Toronto, for a team that opened the season 0-5-0, and the Cooley injury stings, since he had started all four games of that run, per NHL.com.

"You don't want to see anyone get hurt, let alone a guy that's been playing some of his best hockey," Wolf said.

Captain Mikael Backlund did not sugarcoat the offensive performance: "I thought we were a little too much in the perimeter, on the outside today compared to other games," he said. "We didn't get enough traffic and bodies around."

Maverick Energy

Hollywood keeps trying to make sequels that top the original, and it usually fails. Top Gun: Maverick was the rare exception. McDavid sliding past Gretzky's name in the record book is the hockey version of that: a legacy sequel that somehow outdoes the first act. Calgary was just the unlucky cast of extras.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com; additional details from the Associated Press.