| First meeting | October 22, 1980[a] |
|---|---|
| Latest meeting | October 8, 2025 |
| Next meeting | December 23, 2025 |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 301 |
| All-time series | 144–133–18–7 (CGY)[a] |
| Regular season series | 132–110–18–7 (CGY)[a] |
| Postseason results | 23–12 (EDM) |
| Largest victory | EDM 10–1 CGY November 26, 1996 |
| Longest win streak | CGY W9 |
| Current win streak | CGY W1 |
| Postseason history | |
| |
TheBattle of Alberta refers to the rivalry between theNational Hockey League'sCalgary Flames andEdmonton Oilers. The rivalry is one of the fiercest regionalrivalries in league history.[1][2] Geography plays aheavy role in the rivalry as both teams are located on opposite sides of the Canadian province ofAlberta. The two teams are based in the cities ofEdmonton, the provincial capital, andCalgary, the province's most populous city. Both teams have met in the postseason six times and have combined for sixStanley Cup titles. The Flames lead the regular season record 132–110–18–7, while the Oilers lead the postseason matchups 23–12.[3]
The Oilers were established as aWorld Hockey Association (WHA) team in 1972 and joined the NHL as a part of theNHL–WHA merger in 1979. They were soon followed by theAtlanta Flames moving to Calgary in 1980, making the question of who would reign as the top team in Alberta a hot topic. The Flames were the higher-ranked squad in their inaugural season, finishing with 39 wins and 92 points and making it to the Stanley Cup semifinals. The following year the Oilers became the dominant franchise when the Oilers shot to the top of theSmythe Division andWayne Gretzky started his career-long process of shatteringover 100 NHL records and milestones.
The rivalry was especially bitter in the second half of the 1980s. For much of this time, the Flames and Oilers were the two best teams in theCampbell Conference, and by some accounts in the entire league. One of the two teams represented the Campbell Conference in theStanley Cup Final for eight consecutive years from1983 to1990 (Oilers six times, Flames twice). During this time, the Alberta teams wonsix of the eight Stanley Cup Championships, including the Oilers winning five Cups, a feat that has not been repeated since. The Edmonton Oilers of 1983–90 are recognized as one of the NHL'slast great dynasties, with line-ups through this period that featuredHockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) legends like Gretzky,Glenn Anderson,Paul Coffey,Grant Fuhr,Kevin Lowe,Jari Kurri andMark Messier, guided by HHOF coachGlen Sather. The1984–85 Oilers would be voted as the greatest NHL team of all-time during the league's 2017 centennial celebrations.[4] The only time the Flames won the Stanley Cup during that period was in1989, led by HHOF superstarsLanny McDonald,Doug Gilmour,Al MacInnis,Joe Mullen andJoe Nieuwendyk.[5] This period of repeated confrontations was mainly due to the way the playoffs were structured for much of this time. The top four teams in each division made the playoffs, and the winners of the divisional rounds met in the conference finals. As the Flames and Oilers were both in the Smythe Division, this made it very likely they would face each other in the first or second round, en route to the conference finals. That same system made it a near-certainty that all other playoff qualifiers in the Campbell Conference faced the nearly unachievable (during that eight-year period) task of having to get past either the Oilers or Flames (or both) to make the Stanley Cup Final. During this run, the Stanley Cup was awarded in Alberta from1984 to1988 (Oilers winning the deciding Cup game against thePrince of Wales Conference champion in Edmonton in 1984,1985,1987, and 1988, while the east'sMontreal Canadiens won the deciding game in Calgary in1986).
The Oilers defeated the Flames in the playoffs in 1983, 1984, 1988, and 1991, on their way to two of their five Stanley Cups. The Flames defeated the Oilers in the 1986 NHL playoffs; game seven was decided when rookie Oiler defencemanSteve Smith accidentally scored on his own goal, which pushed the rivalry to a new level.[6] The Flames were favoured in the1988 playoffs, winning thePresidents' Trophy,[7] but the Oilers swept the series and eventually went on to win the Cup.[8][9]
After their opening round matchup in1991, the two teams did not meet again in the playoffs until2022.[10] The Oilers, the 1990 Stanley Cup champions, had finished 20 points behind the Flames, the 1989 Stanley Cup champions. Despite this, the Oilers were able to push the series to seven games, withEsa Tikkanen leading the underdog Oilers to an overtime victory on his third goal of the game.
Due to the sheer talent and skill exhibited by both teams in the mid to late-1980s, Alberta was considered a "Death Valley" for teams coming to play on a road trip. The honing of skills developed by the Oilers and Flames by playing the "other" best team in the NHL this many times a year made a swing through Alberta quite daunting for the rest of the teams in the league. The two Alberta teams showed their collective domination over the other 19 teams in the NHL by finishing a joint first and second in theSmythe Division six times between the 1982–83 and 1989–90 regular seasons (neither team lower than third in the nine seasons from 1981 to 1982 through 1990–91), finishing a joint first and second in the largerClarence Campbell Conference four times between the 1985–86 and 1989–90 regular seasons (neither team lower than fifth from 1981 to 1982 through 1990–91) and finishing with both teams in the top ten of the entire NHL seven times between the 1983–84 and 1989–90 regular seasons (with both teams in the top five of the entire NHL in four of those seasons). At least one of the two Alberta teams finished first or second overall for the entire NHL in every one of those nine seasons.
With the changes to the regular season schedule from the1991–92 NHL season onwards, the two teams no longer played each other eight times a year. Falling to only four times a year by2016–17, except for the2020–21 NHL season where they played ten times due to play exclusively against Canadian NHL teams due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Changes in the playoff format also reduced the opportunities for the two teams to meet in the intensity of a condensed seven-game series in less than two weeks — as they went 31 years between playoff meetings after the 1991 series. As the NHL expanded in the United States, Canada declined from seven of 21 league teams in 1990–91 to six of 30 by the2000–01 NHL season. The two Alberta franchises faced financial hardships, since they were among the smallest markets in the league, restricting their ability to pay for higher quality talent and further reducing the competitiveness of the Battle of Alberta games and their ability to reach the playoffs. The situation was not addressed untilJune 2005, when the NHL became the last major North American professional sports league to introduce asalary cap, coupled with improvedrevenue sharing.
It took well over a decade for either team to return to anything near the form they had exhibited in the 1980s. The Flames advanced to the2004 Stanley Cup Final, falling in seven games to theTampa Bay Lightning. The Flames became the first team in themodern era of the NHL to defeat all three division winners en route to the Stanley Cup Final.[11][12] The next Stanley Cup Final, played in2006 due to theNHL lock-out of 2004–05, saw the Edmonton Oilers fall in seven games to theCarolina Hurricanes. The Oilers became the first eighth seed in NHL history to advance past the semifinals, let alone make it to the Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers faced a playoff drought for ten seasons after their run in 2006–07, not qualifying for the playoffs until the 2016–17 season. The Flames made the playoffs every year until 2009, but then had their own playoff drought of six consecutive seasons.
There have been three regular season sweeps in the history of the rivalry. The Flames swept the six-game series in2009–10 and the five-game series in2014–15, while the Oilers swept the four-game series in2016–17. The Flames’ sweep of the Oilers in 2009–10 was significant in the sense that they tied the rivalry's win–loss–tie overall regular season and playoff series (since the team's move to Calgary) on December 28, 2009. They then took the overall series lead with their victory over the Oilers three days later, and they have not relinquished it since (as of the end of the2019–20 season). The Oilers had previously led the series since October 20, 1981. The aforementioned 2009–10 season also marked the first-evertrade between the two rivals, with Edmonton'sSteve Staios being traded for Calgary'sAaron Johnson on March 3, 2010.[13]
The rivalry saw a large revival in early 2020s. During a game on January 11, 2020, Calgary'sMatthew Tkachuk and Edmonton'sZack Kassian began a feud. It began with two hits that Kassian felt were "predatory" in nature from Tkachuk, including a hit that knocked off Kassian's helmet. In response, Kassian attempted to fight Tkachuk, grabbing and punching him. Tkachuk did not fight back and assumed a defensive position, leading Kassian to be given a double-minor penalty for roughing and a misconduct. On the ensuing power play, Calgary scored the game-winning goal.[14] After the game, Tkachuk's decision to "turtle" stirred controversy among players, fans, and sports writers.[15] The teams met again on January 29, which saw Tkachuk and Kassian fight near the end of the first period, with Kassian saying “Thanks kid, I appreciate you doing this."[16] In the next game on February 1, the first goalie fight[17] between the two teams erupted, in the midst of a fullline brawl.[18] It was considered by many fans as the epitome of the battle of Alberta, with Oilers radio announcerJack Michaels saying, "This is the battle of Alberta we've been waiting for, for three decades!" during his coverage of the game.[19]
During the2022 playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames faced off in the second round. Both the Flames and Oilers narrowly won their previous rounds, both of which went to game seven. Game one set the tone for the rest of the series with a record-setting high-scoring game, which ended in a Flames 9–6 victory. The Oilers then won the next four games, with players such as the Oilers'Evander Kane scoring multiple goals, along with ahat-trick. In game five, both teams scored in total four goals in 71 seconds, bringing the score to 4–4 at the end of the second period. In the third period, a controversial goal by Flames playerBlake Coleman was called off for being knocked in with a kicking motion, resulting in the game remaining tied. The game went to overtime where Oilers' star player,Connor McDavid, scored from a quick snapshot five minutes in. The Oilers advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2006,[20][21] but they were swept by theColorado Avalanche.[22]
The two teams met at the2023 Heritage Classic in Edmonton on October 29, 2023, with the Oilers defeating the Flames 5–2.[23]
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