See more photos from Saturday night's game

A proud native of the Edmonton suburb of St. Albert, Jarome Iginla gets the hype surrounding the pure offensive skill of the Edmonton Oilers.

Heck, the Calgary Flames captain hears all about it, ad nauseam, from his old pals back home.

“I still have buddies up there that I couldn’t convert over 15 years,” a smiling Iginla said Saturday night after someone turned down the stereo blaring Gangnam Style in the Flames dressing room. “I’ve given up trying to convert some of them.

“So it is nice to beat them, just so they don’t have bragging rights away from the rink. It feels good.”

Flames fans walked away from the Saddledome feeling mighty good Saturday night after the hometown heroes knocked of the Oilers 4-3 on Hockey Night in Canada.

The final score is actually misleading in a game the Flames never trailed and outshot their opponents by a commanding margin of 35-20.

“I always love beating Edmonton,” said left wing Curtis Glencross, widely considered a traitor in the Alberta capital for defecting to Calgary as a free agent in 2008. “I have way too many friends that are Oilers fans. Any time we can beat them, it’s rewarding for me.”

Clearly in a different mental frame under head coach Bob Hartley, Mikael Backlund opened the scoring at 5:15 of the first period thanks in no small part to an impressive individual effort by Michael Cammalleri cutting to the middle and directing the puck towards the net.

Backlund not exactly known for his physical play, muscled his way in front and batted the puck home to the delight of many (but not all) in the red-and-blue crowd.

Jay Bouwmeester, with perhaps his best night in four seasons as a Flame, made it 2-0 at 14:25 with a shot through all kinds of traffic that eluded goalie Devan Dubnyk.

Justin Schultz, an early favourite to win the Calder Trophy, got the Oilers on the board with 41 seconds left in the opening frame with the man advantage (on an undisciplined goaltender infraction assessed to Glencross.)

Glencross atoned for his transgression 3:59 into the second period by banging home a nice feed from Iginla. The teams then traded power-play goals with Jordan Eberle scoring for Edmonton and Stempniak collecting his second goal (and third point of the night) to give Calgary a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.

The Stempniak marker came on a glorious pass from Bouwmeester, who looked every part the rushing defenceman Flames fans expected upon arrival from the Florida Panthers in 2009.

In fact, Bouwmeester’s opening 40 minutes included a solid bodycheck on Taylor Hall and an impressive defensive play to break up a three-on-one with Hall, Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

“Jay Bouwmeester was flying tonight,” said head coach Bob Hartley. “I think we saw the real Jay Bouwmeester, a guy who took charge, wanted the puck, made a great play on the Lee Stempniak goal. He was a quarterback back there.

“That’s the kind of hockey I think Jay Bouwmeester can bring to us and he has the green light. He has the speed to create offence. If he doesn’t, he has the speed to come back. We’re telling him we want him to create a good second wave for us, to make sure he’s always in the play, always active.

“That’s tough to defend.”

With Dubnyk on the bench for the extra attacker, Sam Gagner swooped in to bat the puck behind Miikka Kiprusoff with 1.4 seconds remaining. But it wasn’t enough.

For his efforts, Bouwmeester became the first Flame to wear the firefighter hat presented after each victory to Calgary’s hardest-working player.

“It’s fun playing them,” Bouwmeester said. “I grew up there. I know what the rivalry is like.

“I was never a big Oiler fan growing up, but I have a lot of friends that are. My brother-in-law is probably the biggest one, so it’s nice when we can beat them.”

While Bouwmeester got the firefighter’s lid, the players presented Hartley with the game puck to mark his first victory behind the bench for the Flames.

With the win, the Flames move to 1-2-1. The Oilers drop to 2-2.

“I want to share that game puck with all our fans, because I know we went three months without hockey, without a win,” Hartley said. “And obviously, we went our first three games, even though our boys worked unbelievably hard, they didn’t get rewarded. And at the same time, we couldn’t reward our fans.

“This win is for us, but it’s also for our great fans.”

vhall@calgaryherald.com