Oilers 3, Blues 2 post-game Oil Spills: Oilers rally to extend streak to three
By Cam Lewis
6 years agoFor the first time in 2017-18, the Edmonton Oilers are on a three-game winning streak. Despite falling behind twice in the third period, the Oilers rallied against one of the better defensive teams in the league to edge out a 3-2 win. The team is playing its best hockey of the season and now has a chance to reach .500 before Christmas (depending on how you count overtime losses).
Highlights
Cam Talbot looked a little shaky in Edmonton’s win over San Jose earlier this week, but he was rock solid last night against the Blues. Talbot stopped 34 of 36 shots in all situations, including this robbery on Paul Stastny after he got his pocket picked behind the net.
The Blues grabbed the lead about half-way through the third, but just 38 seconds later, Mike Cammalleri tied the game up with a seeing-eye shot past a screened Jake Allen. This is a prime example of getting pucks on net and going to the net, which is something the team did very well last season but haven’t done enough this season.
The Blues took the lead a few minutes later, but the Oilers battled back again. Connor McDavid took a stretch pass from Milan Lucic and then did a give-and-go with Leon Draisaitl before tapping in the game-tying goal.
It seemed like the Oilers were poised for overtime, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins set up behind the net and feathered a beautiful pass to Drake Caggiula who buried the game-winning goal past Allen. I can’t say enough about how well-played this was by Nuge behind the net. The patience to wait around for Caggiula to get into position before sliding a pass through multiple waving sticks was incredible.
By the numbers
All in all, this was a tightly-contested game. The Blues outplayed the Oilers in the first, posting 14 even strength shot attempts to Edmonton’s 11. The second was virtually a draw, with the Blues edging the Oilers 21 to 20, then Edmonton put the foot on the gas in the third, picking up 21 shot attempts to St. Louis’ 15. All told, Edmonton had 52 shot attempts at even strength and the Blues had 50, and Edmonton held a slight edge with nine high danger chances to St. Louis’ eight.
THOUGHTS…
- The Oilers are now on a three-game winning streak for the first time all season. They still sit 14th in the Western Conference but are only five points out of a wild card spot and are six points behind the Sharks for the third seed in the Pacific Division. Five points doesn’t seem like a lot of ground to make up, but the Oilers need to jump over a lot of teams who are going to be spending a good chunk of the second half of the season playing each other. As a result, there isn’t really much room for error, which makes wins like this one over St. Louis in regulation so critical.
- Cam Talbot was rock solid in net for the Oilers, stopping 34 of 36 shots. The Oilers badly need Talbot to be the goalie he was last season in order to go on a run in the second-half of the season, and he played the part last night. Also, the Oilers defence has played a lot better in front of Talbot than they did at the beginning of the season. They held the Blues to eight high danger chances at even strength. The most important part was shutting down Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko, and the Oilers blueline held the Blues’ dynamic duo to just one high danger chance.
- Andrej Sekera made his return to Edmonton’s blueline and logged 16:10 alongside Matt Benning on the team’s third pairing. At even strength, the pair did an excellent job at limiting St. Louis’ chances, holding them to five shots on goal and no high danger chances. It’ll take a little while before Sekera is ready to log the minutes he did last season, but getting him back is a massive boost even when he’s playing a limited role.
Recent articles from Cam Lewis
