A Calgary restaurant owner says he is furious with members of the Edmonton Oilers after a group of 45 people, comprised of players and their significant others, racked up a near $17,000 New Year's Eve tab and then refused to pay the bill in full.

Maurizio Terrigno, the owner of Osteria de Medici, says the group dined at his upscale Italian restaurant in Calgary Thursday evening. He says the hockey players wives and girlfriends arrived early to watch the Oilers take on the Flames and were later joined by their husbands and boyfriends following their loss in Calgary.

Terrigno says the group drank and dined extravagantly, ordering 100 shots of tequila, $150 bottles of wine and Dom Perignon, and ran up a bill close to $17,000 which included an automatic 18 per cent tip.  The restaurateur says when the bill arrived the players got angry and refused to pay the full amount.

"They were being rude, belligerent, I just said go," said Terrigno.

A spokesperson for the Edmonton Oilers tells a different story. Allan Watt says the players were overcharged and negotiated a new bill with the restaurant.

"They received a bill, they inquired about it and the bill was adjusted and they paid it and they left the restaurant," said Watt, a spokesperson for the Edmonton Oilers.

Watt says the players tell him they didn't order a number of the drinks on the bill, in particular the shots of tequila.

Terrigno says the group, which included team captain Ethan Moreau, tried to negotiate a discount on their bill and at one point refused to pay entirely.

"They were threatening to my staff to the point of 'do you know who we are'," said Terrigno.

At issue was the liquor bill, which totalled over $8,000.

The players argued they should pay by the bottle for dozens of shooters purchased during the party, but the restaurant charged them for each one individually. The restaurant owner says there was an arrangement for discounted food, but there was no such arrangement for discounted drinks.

"These people felt that they were entitled to a special benefit that only came to the Edmonton Oilers and hockey players in general," said Terrigno.

At one point, Terrigno threatened to call police and eventually, the players paid about $12,000 of the total bill.

Terrigno says he never agreed to the reduced amount and plans to donate the money to charity.

With files from Bill Fortier and ctvcalgary.ca