Battle of Alberta Transformed

In the eight National Hockey League (NHL) seasons from 1982-1990, each  Stanley Cup final featured an Alberta-based team. The Oilers represented the Campbell Conference six times, while the Calgary Flames went to the final twice. The two teams accounted for six Cup wins (Edmonton five, Calgary one) and there was a general feeling among the Oilers that Calgary, and not the champions of the Eastern-based Wales Conference, represented their biggest threat to the Stanley Cup.

Those fears materialized in 1986, when the Flames knocked the Oilers out of the playoffs. Since 1991, the Oilers and Flames met in five playoff series, with three matches going to a seventh game. At the time, the Battle of Alberta was the most heated rivalry in the NHL.

The 1991 Smythe Division first-round series between the two teams was a final chapter to a decade-long war. Despite finishing 20 points ahead of the Oilers in the regular season standings, Edmonton took the Flames to seven games. After three periods of hockey at the Saddledome, the Flames and Oilers were tied 4-4, and an overtime goal would decide the game. Just before the clock hit the seven-minute mark, Oilers’ winger Esa Tikkanen rifled the puck past Flames goalie Mike Vernon, and Edmonton could savour their upset of the Flames, a sort-of revenge for Calgary’s Game 7 win at Northlands Coliseum in 1986.

After the series, the rivalry transformed as salaries rose to the point where third-line players, back-up goalies and fifth and sixth defencemen earned seven-digit contracts. Both the Oilers and Flames fell in the standings, and their games no longer determined who was the best in the NHL. From 1993-1996, the Oilers did not qualify for the post-season, and while the Flames remained at or near the top of the standings until 1995, the Flames never won a playoff series. 

Today, the Battle of Alberta is rekindled by the number of Albertans who play for the clubs, and have preserved the memories of the hated rivaly. By the 2002-2003 season the Oilers had seven Albertans in the line up, including Captain Jason Smith, Brad Isbister, Mike Comrie, Fernando Pisani, Scott Ferguson, Jason Chimera and Ryan Smyth. The Flames’ top player, Jarome Iginla, is an Edmontonian. Iginla won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top scorer and the “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal-getter in 2001-02. The Flames have also taken a made-in-Alberta approach to coaching. Over the last decade, Viking Alberta's Brian and Darryl Sutter have coached the team. In the 1997-98 season, the Flames boasted seven Edmontonians on their opening-night roster.

The Battle of Alberta generated international attention in 2003. During the third period of a late-season drubbing at the Saddledome, Flames’ mascot Harvey the Hound came to the Oilers bench to heckle coach Craig MacTavish. The coach turned and snatched the fake tongue on the mascot costume, ripped it off and tossed it to the crowd. The Oilers, buoyed by the incident, stormed back, and it took late heroics from Flames goalie Roman Turek to preserve a one-goal win. Within days, MacTavish was a celebrity.  The heated rivalry between the Oilers and Flames is still on.

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