Friend or foe? The Flames won a place in the playoffs after the Oilers defeated the Golden Knights

| April 16, 2022, 7:17 p.m.

Mike Smith made 39 saves for his second straight after Edmonton Oilers won a 4-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.

With the victory, Edmonton’s biggest rival, the Calgary Flames, became the first team in the Pacific Division to win a place in the playoffs.

The Oilers already have six points ahead of Los Angeles for second place in the Pacific Division and seven points from Vegas.

Evander Kane has scored and assisted the Oilers (44-26-6), who are 14-3-2 in their last 19 games. Chris Russell, Cody Sessie and Warren Vogel also scored.

Logan Thompson made 32 saves for the Golden Knights (41-29-5), who lost three of their last five.

Russell finally overcame the fruitless zero result for Edmonton with 3:24 by the end of the first period. The veteran defender slipped out of the spot and shot past Thompson for his first goal of 126 games.

The game remained with one goal for 40 minutes, with Edmonton beating Vegas 26-25.

Oilers made it 2-0 in just 35 seconds in the third period, with Cecie using Jesse Pulyuarvi’s screen to send a point past Thompson for his fifth of the season.

Edmonton extended their lead by five minutes in the third when Vogele stole a puck from Alec Martinez on the Oilers blue line and took it all the way to the Vegas net to score his 12th in the campaign.

The Oilers continued to walk shorthand with 4:27 until the end of the third, while Kane scored his 17th goal after a great individual effort by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins managed to reach the net.

The Golden Knights return to the ice on Monday to host the New Jersey Devils. The Oilers are not until Wednesday, when they start a match in Dallas against the Stars.

Notes: Both Edmonton and Vegas entered the game after scoring 10 goals with a short arm this season … Knights goalkeeper Robin Lehner returned to Las Vegas on Friday due to a family health problem, with Jiri Patera coming from Henderson from the AHL to support Thompson for the game … Vegas was missing Laurent Brosoit (undisclosed), Nolan Patrick (undisclosed), Nicholas Hague (lower body), Riley Smith (lower body), Brett Howden (upper body) body) and William Carrier (upper body) … Edmonton had his full regular range available.