Caggiula dukes it out with Jankowski
Before the Milan Lucic fireworks with Calgary Flames goalie Mike Smith in the third period Saturday, Drake Caggiula stepped up in weight class to fight Mark Jankowski, giving away six inches and 17 pounds.
“I’m not afraid of challenges like that. I hit him pretty hard, clean hit but he asked me to fight and I said, ‘Yeah,’ ” Caggiula said. “I’m not really scared. OK, there’s a few guys I wouldn’t ask and a couple are on my team. I didn’t get hit with any (punches), and I don’t know if he did. My (recently repaired) teeth were fine. Good wrestling match, I guess.”
They mixed it up for 10 or 15 seconds, then the six-foot-four, 202-pound Jankowski fell hard to the ice with Caggiula, who’s only had two NHL fights. The other was in the playoffs last May when he tangled with Andrew Cogliano in the Oilers-Anaheim series.
TALBOT YANKED
Oilers starter Cam Talbot only lasted 11 and a half minutes in Calgary before backup Al Montoya came in to make 16 saves on 16 shots the rest of the way.
Neither the first goal by plugger Garnet Hathaway, who beat Talbot far glove side while short-handed, nor Mikael Backlund’s tuck-job rebound off an initial soft Michael Stone shot, looked good. Talbot’s been pulled eight times this year, five on the road.
It’s been a roller-coaster year for him. While he’s played 63 games and might finish with 65, if gets the start against Vegas and Vancouver to end things this week (only eight fewer than last year), he’s had 28 starts where he’s given up two or fewer goals, and 20 with four or more.
“Not his best night, simply put. But he’s been tremendous the past six weeks, a rock for our team,” said coach Todd McLellan. “As others have had off-nights, he hasn’t but he wasn’t as sharp as he’d like.”
FOUR MORE
The Zack Kassian-Mike Cammalleri-Anton Slepyshev fourth line got the most done against Calgary, with Cammalleri scoring his first goal since Dec. 21 and Slepyshev also getting one, both off Kassian assists.
“They were in on the goals, in on the forecheck. That was our best line,” said McLellan.
Slepyshev was on in the dying seconds as one of the forwards trying to tie it. “He deserved to be out there and, actually, Cammy and Zack were due to come out too but there were a lot of whistles and faceoffs and the guys on the ice stayed on the ice.”