Edmonton Oilers fight through early deficit, rescinded goals to tie series at 1-1

CALGARY — The Edmonton Oilers would not be denied.

Not by another bad start. Not by a cascade of tough (stick) breaks or disallowed goals.

In Game 2 of the Oilers' second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against Calgary on Friday, Edmonton got the 5-3 win it needed to even the Battle of Alberta before shifting to their home ice. And they did it by playing the way coach Jay Woodcroft has been preaching for weeks.

«We had some things not go our way today. But I think it speaks to the resiliency and resolve of our group [that we came through],» said Woodcroft. «It's something that we've been working on for the last three months, the ability to stick with it.

»I think if you walked in our room, you'd find a group of men that are wholly sure of our message, wholly sure of our game plan, wholly sure of what it takes to win come crunch time. And we have a belief. We didn't feel that we played to that standard in Game 1. We had better tonight."

It wasn't easy for Edmonton to get there.

The Oilers endured a terrible start to Game 1, giving up three goals in just over six minutes en route to a 9-6 loss. Friday's tilt started in an eerily similar fashion for the Oilers, trailing 2-0 only 6:02 into the first period. And after that, Edmonton was twice robbed of goals they felt were deserved.

On the first, Zach Hyman thought he stuffed a 2-2 equalizer under Flames' netminder Jacob Markstrom before referee Chris Lee blew the play dead.

The call on the ice was no goal. Despite Hyman's confidence — he even went to the bench for fist bumps — the officials took another look and confirmed: no goal.

Word from the NHL's Situation Room after the fact was that «the Referee deemed the play dead when he lost sight of the puck under Jacob