Flames Can't Burn Salo In Tie

The Battle of Alberta isn't over yet.

Rem Murray scored the tying goal late in the second period as the Edmonton Oilers tied the Calgary Flames 2-2 Monday night in a game featuring two provincial rivals battling for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Murray took a pass from Pat Falloon and scored from the side of the net at 16:06 of the second period to help the Oilers remain two points behind the eighth-place Flames in the West.

"It looked like no one wanted to win, no one wanted to lose," said Flames goalie Ken Wregget, who finished with 30 saves. "Everybody knows the way things are stacking up in the standings. We want to get as many points as we can. We're trying to make the playoffs. We're trying to play our game and get the points."

Oilers goalie Tommy Salo preserved the tie when he made a big save on Calgary defenseman Tommy Albelin just minutes after Murray tied the score.

Roman Hamrlik had the other goal for the Oilers.

Rene Corbet and Phil Housley scored power-play goals for the Flames. Housley got an assist on Corbet's goal and is second among NHL defensemen with 50 points.

"Neither team won, but the fans certainly did," Oilers coach Ron Low said. "It was hard-fought, with a lot of hits."

Low was thankful his team managed to salvage a point, especially after falling behind 1-0 less than a minute into the game. Edmonton is 0-13-4 when the opposing team scores first at the Skyreach Centre.

"The biggest thing was that the first goal didn't kill us, especially that early in the game," Low said.

The Oilers have also struggled at home in overtime this season, going 0-4-5. Edmonton is 2-5-11 in overtime overall this season.

"In the whole overtime we didn't play like we did in the first three periods," Low said.

The Flames outshot the Oilers 4-0 in the extra period.

"We did a lot f little things well," Calgary coach Brian Sutter said. "It's a credit to our guys to get a point."

Edmonton struggled on the power play, scoring just once in seven chances, while Calgary was 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

"We didn't score on a lot of chances we had on the power play," Low said. "Five-on-five, we beat them 1-0."

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