Battle of Alberta between Flames, Oilers will be ‘physical as get-out’

The stage is set, then, for the Battle of Alberta to rumble again, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames set to lock up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 31 years.

Hall of Fame forward McDonald and goalie Fuhr, and two cities in a hockey-crazed province, expect madness and more for four games, at least, beginning on Wednesday when the Oilers travel 185 miles south to Calgary for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Second Round at Scotiabank Saddledome (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).

[RELATED: Complete Flames vs. Oilers series coverage]

“The Battle of Alberta is about as good as it gets in hockey,” Fuhr said Monday from his home in Palm Desert, California. “I think it’s as much fun as playing in the Stanley Cup Final.”

In Calgary, McDonald was still coming down 12 hours after having nearly hyperventilated through Calgary’s 3-2 Game 7 overtime win against the Dallas Stars on Sunday, setting up the sixth postseason meeting between the archrivals. 

Lanny McDonald looks to pass out from behind Grant Fuhr’s net.

“It’s going to be physical as all get-out, and that’s the way it should be,” he said. “At the end of it you’ll congratulate each other and one moves on. That’s the greatest thing about the game, the sportsmanship of the handshake at the end of the series. It [stinks] to lose but it’s going to be so much fun for both fan bases.

“The rekindling of this rivalry, the bragging rights to Alberta, the spike in the economy which desperately needs it. There are so many things that go into this series. And then, hey, the Oilers just came through an unbelievably tough series against Los Angeles and we had the same against Dallas. The first round is the toughest to get out of. Can we relax? No! We’ve got the Battle of Alberta here. Strap them back on, boys, because here we go. Oh my God, it will be so much fun.”

The Oilers won four of five playoff series against the Flames between 1983-91. Four times in five series, the team that survived advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers winning championships in 1984 and 1988.

Three of their six Smythe Division final or semifinal series went the seven-game limit; in 1983 the Oilers breezed through a division final against Calgary in five games, then swept the Flames in 1988.

Outside the so-called Original Six, the only teams with more head-to-head matchups in a Game 7 are the St. Louis Blues against the Dallas Stars/Minnesota North Stars (five) and Pittsburgh Penguins against the Washington Capitals (four).

The only teams from the same state or province to have more playoff series against each other are the Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers-New York Islanders (seven each).

Fuhr was born in Spruce Grove, Alberta, about 18 miles west of Edmonton. He was thrilled to be selected by the Oilers in the first round of the 1981 NHL Draft (No. 8) and would win the Stanley Cup for his hometown team five times between 1984-90.

“Even as a kid you always wanted to beat Calgary,” he said. “We took great pride in beating the Flames and they took great pride in beating us. Every game was a little like a playoff game. You could have a bad year, but if you beat Calgary eight times that year everybody would forget you had a bad year. Definitely, there were bragging rights.

“Look back into the mid-1980s when three of the best teams in the League were in the same [Smythe] division. You knew that Winnipeg was going to lose to somebody. And then either Calgary or Edmonton were not going to make it. We were playing pretty much Stanley Cup Final games either in the first or second round.”

Lanny McDonald chases Edmonton Oilers star Wayne Gretzky.

In an Oilers uniform, Fuhr had good success against the Flames with a 21-15-9 regular-season record, 15-10 in the playoffs. Every game was special, he recalls, mostly for the intensity, and he expects that dial to be turned way up come opening face-off Wednesday, a flashback to the days when he was in the heat of the action.

“It’ll probably turn into a physical series,” Fuhr said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a Battle of Alberta that isn’t. There’s going to be meanness to it and the team that’s going to push through that will move on.”

Each goaltender, Fuhr says, can expect traffic, and plenty of it.

“All of our games were going to be mean and nasty, it was going to be fun around the crease,” he recalled with a laugh. “You just prepared for everybody and everything when you played Calgary. Lanny could shoot the puck, a natural goal-scorer. They had Joey Mullen for a while, Hakan Loob, Dougie Gilmour. Dougie spent a lot of time in front of me.”

With the Flames, McDonald had good numbers against the Oilers: 42 points (25 goals, 17 assists) in 53 games, and 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 22 postseason games.

Oilers defenseman Paul Coffey pins Flames forward Tim Hunter to the ice beside goalie Grant Fuhr.

“There was nothing better than getting ready for a playoff game against the Oilers,” McDonald said. “They brought out the best in you each and every game. You knew you had to be at the top of your game not only individually but as an entire team to find a way to win.”

Calgary has been home for 40 years for McDonald, who played his first 10 NHL seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Rockies before a Nov. 25, 1981 trade brought him to the Flames, where he became hugely popular through his nearly eight seasons and in many ways to this day remains the face/moustache of the franchise.

The long-time Hockey Hall of Fame chairman went out the best way imaginable, winning the 1989 Stanley Cup with Calgary two months after scoring his 500th and final goal.

Fuhr would finish his 19-season NHL career with the Flames, of all teams, traded to Calgary on Sept. 4, 1999 by the Blues.

Lanny McDonald became the face of the Flames, while Grant Fuhr wrapped up his Hall of Fame-bound career with Calgary.

“It was a little bit different,” Fuhr said of playing the final 23 of his 868 NHL games for the Flames. “But my mom was from Calgary, so it was a good way to finish.”

With Calgary, Fuhr won his 400th NHL game. His last game was against the Oilers on April 8, 2000 in third-period Saddledome relief of Fred Brathwaite, allowing two goals on seven shots.

“I think I went through a few more sticks than I usually do,” Fuhr said. “I wanted to make sure that the kids and my friends would get one.”

More than a thousand Oilers fans made the trip to Calgary, raising the roof in appreciation. He was mobbed by players on both teams as he skated off an NHL rink for the final time.

But that was then. As the Battle of Alberta roars back to life, neither Fuhr nor McDonald expect any player on their former teams to be cheered in the rival’s building any time soon.

“Fans will have an appreciation for the best players on the other team,” McDonald said. “But are they going to say it out loud? Not a chance.”

Photos: Hockey Hall of Fame (Paul Bereswill); Getty Images