  Flames' Eric Nystrom, left, celebrates his goal with teammates, Brian McGrattan and Dustin Boyd. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)
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Falling behind early after a dubious penalty call put them a man short, the question on everyone’s minds was how the Calgary Flames would respond to adversity.
They did it with determination. They answered with goals.
Then, inexplicably, they responded with stupidity, in a schizophrenic finish to their 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at the Saddledome last night that tied their franchise-best 10-game start to a season.
The 7-2-1 mark equals the record pace put out by the 2001-02 Flames.
Enjoying a 4-1 lead after goals from Nigel Dawes, Eric Nystrom and David Moss in the first 11 minutes of the second period, the Flames lost focus and shot some energy into an Oilers crew that looked about ready to call it quits.
The helmet-slapping sound of Aaron Johnson’s brutal crosscheck to the head of giant J-F Jacques echoed through the Saddledome in the dying minutes of the middle frame, and the Oilers made the Flames pay with a second powerplay score of the night — this one from Dustin Penner in a goal-mouth scramble.
Instead of learning their lesson, the Flames paraded even more bodies to the penalty box, giving the Oilers four straight minutes of powerplay time — almost a minute of it a two-man advantage — split across the intermission.
Coming a Shawn Horcoff post away from a one-goal deficit, the Oilers tested Miikka Kiprusoff in flurries.
Luckily for the Flames, their goaltender was up to the challenge.
It was a run-in with Oilers netminder Nikolai Khabibulin that got the Flames and their fans flustered mere minutes into the game.
No crackdown has been ordered by the league, but goalies have been bounced around a lot so far this season.
However, Bill McCreary’s call — from the far side of the rink when partner David Banfield had no intention of putting his arm up just a few feet away — was beyond bad.
Heading to the front of the net, Jarome Iginla made incidental contact with Khabibulin, who was outside the blue paint of his protected area.
McCreary’s arm shot up from 100 feet away, just as Iginla’s did pointing to the scoreboard after Lubomir Visnovsky scored on the man-advantage to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead 2:25 in.
Instead of getting frustrated by officiating, the Flames countered with a shorthanded goal from Rene Bourque, who capped off a two-on-one with Daymond Langkow with his fifth of the year.
Dawes scored his first of two goals on the night to make Bourque’s perfect pass count.
Moss scored his third of the season — all against the Oilers — on a textbook tip-in of a Dion Phaneuf point shot on the powerplay.
Dawes put the game out of reach late in the third with a seeing-eye wrister from a bad angle that beat Khabibulin five-hole.
There were some great stretches of play in the Flames’ third victory over their provincial rival last night, and some entertaining fireworks that included a classic heavyweight tilt between Flames tough guy Brian McGrattan and Oilers goon Steve MacIntyre, but there were plenty of things to work on for the home side.
If they want to set a new benchmark for their hottest start to a season, the Flames will have to find ways to keep their cool.
