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Connor McDavid doesn’t believe Mark Giordano was playing dirty.

Early in the second period of Saturday night’s Battle of Alberta, the Edmonton Oilers superstar sped past the Calgary Flames captain and headed hard to the net, only for Giordano to trip him and cause him to go crashing into the post.

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Clearly in a considerable amount of pain, McDavid needed help getting to the locker room and while an X-ray came back negative, he’s scheduled to get an MRI on his left leg on Sunday.

Speaking with the Edmonton media the morning after the incident, McDavid said he believed Giordano was going for the puck and the play wasn’t dirty.

“(I was) just trying to make a play on the net and get tripped up, but you can’t fault Giordano for trying to make a play on the puck,” McDavid said.

After the game on Saturday night, Giordano was apologetic for the trip.

“I feel terrible,” Giordano said. “I tried to obviously dive and get the puck and you never want to see (that). He’s the best player in the game, so we need him in the game and tried to find out how he’s doing out there and you’re not going to get much from (the Oilers), they’re pretty mad about it and I understand it.”

At the time that he was speaking with the media, Giordano hadn’t had the chance to follow up and speak with McDavid, but the Oilers star confirmed Sunday morning that the Flames defenceman did find him and speak with him after the game.

“He came around and was really nice and just said ‘I feel bad’ and whatnot,” McDavid said. “I appreciate that. Like I said, he was just trying to make a play on the puck.”

daustin@postmedia.com

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