NHL Update Oct 3, 2026: Michaels Puts Oilers Ahead Early
Updated: Oct 3
Good evening, Alberta! It's a busy Saturday on the ice. The Oilers lead the Seattle Kraken after one period at Rogers Place, the Flames are about to open their first road trip in Vancouver, and the rest of the league is humming along. Here's your Alberta Radio evening NHL update.
League Roundup
Friday's finals wrapped a solid night of hockey: the New York Rangers blanked Detroit 2-0, Washington beat Carolina 5-2 with two goals from Alex Tuch, Boston edged Winnipeg 4-3 in overtime on JJ Peterka's winner, St. Louis shut out Dallas 4-0, and Anaheim held on for a 4-3 win in Vegas after building a four-goal lead.
Saturday's early slate (as of about 6 p.m. MT) had plenty of action still underway. Chicago led Buffalo 2-1, Ottawa led Toronto 1-0, Tampa Bay led Washington 2-0, Carolina and Philadelphia were tied 1-1, Montreal and Pittsburgh were tied 1-1, Utah led Columbus 2-0, New Jersey and the Islanders were scoreless, and Dallas had just started in Nashville. Later tonight: St. Louis at Colorado (7 p.m. MT) and Los Angeles at San Jose (8 p.m. MT), plus our Alberta teams.
Edmonton Oilers
Rogers Place is rocking, and the home side has the early edge.
Through one period: Oilers 1, Kraken 0. Rookie Owen Michaels scored at 2:51 of the first, burying a wrist shot over Philipp Grubauer's shoulder from the left circle for his second goal of the season — and his first on home ice. Alex Formenton picked up the assist, his second helper in an Oilers sweater. Shots after 20 minutes: Edmonton 10, Seattle 5. The teams headed to the first intermission with Devon Levi perfect so far (5 saves) and Grubauer stopping 9 of 10 for Seattle.
Michaels is making a habit of this. On Thursday in Vancouver he scored his first NHL goal in that wild 9-7 win powered by McDavid's five-point night; tonight he needed less than three minutes to get on the board again. See tonight's game-day preview for the full pregame notes.
Lineup notes from Oilers.com live coverage: Podkolzin–McDavid–Draisaitl; Jones–Dach–Kapanen; Formenton–Michaels–Joseph; Howard–Samanski–Frederic on the forward lines, with Ekholm–Bouchard, Walman–Murphy and Shea–Emberson on defence. Levi got the start over Tristan Jarry — his second straight after Thursday's win. Grubauer started for Seattle ahead of Joey Daccord.
Injuries unchanged: Zach Hyman remains out (listed as undisclosed / upper-body in earlier reports), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, and Frederik Andersen, Jason Dickinson, Mattias Janmark, Alec Regula and Matthew Savoie are also sidelined. Two periods still to go at Rogers Place — we'll have the final in tomorrow's update.
Calgary Flames
While Edmonton plays, Calgary is getting ready for an 8 p.m. MT puck drop at Rogers Arena against the Vancouver Canucks (1-1-0). The Flames (0-1-0) are looking to bounce back from Thursday's 6-1 home-opener loss to Seattle, where Ryan Strome scored the lone Calgary goal and Zach Whitecloud called the result "embarrassing."
Projected lineup (morning skate / NHL.com): Gridin–Frost–Coronato; Honzek–Backlund–Farabee; Othmann–Strome–Sharangovich; Tsyplakov–Pospisil–Klapka. On defence: Hanley–Nemec, Bahl–Whitecloud, Middleton–Parekh. Brennan Othmann draws in for Connor Zary, and Joel Hanley replaces Yan Kuznetsov while Bahl reunites with Whitecloud.
In goal: Devin Cooley gets his first start of the season, confirmed by Sportsnet's Eric Francis and listed ahead of Dustin Wolf on CalgaryFlames.com. Wolf made 26 saves in Thursday's loss. At the other end, Leevi Merilainen is projected to start for Vancouver (Kevin Lankinen the backup). Canucks forwards Jake DeBrusk (illness) and Filip Chytil (shoulder) are out, and Thatcher Demko remains sidelined with a hip injury; Jonathan Huberdeau (hip) is still out for Calgary.
What's Next
Tonight (in progress): Seattle Kraken at Edmonton Oilers — Oilers lead 1-0 after one (Rogers Place; SNW)
Tonight, 8 p.m. MT: Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks (Rogers Arena; SN)
Sun. Oct. 4, 6 p.m. MT: Calgary Flames at Seattle Kraken (Climate Pledge Arena)
Also Sunday: Winnipeg at Detroit (11 a.m. MT), Utah at Rangers (4 p.m.), Florida at Anaheim (6 p.m.), Vegas at Canucks (7 p.m.)
Stick with Alberta Radio for the rest of tonight's scores and tomorrow's full morning wrap. Go Oilers, go Flames!
Sources: NHL.com scoreboard and game data, Oilers.com live updates, NHL.com projected lineups, CalgaryFlames.com, Sportsnet (Eric Francis), CBS Sports. Score for SEA@EDM current as of first intermission (~6 p.m. MT); Flames@Canucks had not started.
