The Oilers looked out of sorts during the first two games of this Eastern Conference road trip but they settled down and won the latter two with some good old fashioned defence-first hockey.
After losing back-to-back games by scores of 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils earlier this week, the Oilers squeezed out a 2-1 overtime victory against the New York Islanders on Friday before finishing the trip with a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday.
Corey Perry opened the scoring for the visiting team with a power play goal late in the first period and Will Cuylle knotted the score at 1-1 early in the second frame. Viktor Arvidsson put Edmonton back on top in the third and Connor McDavid gave his team some insurance in the final few minutes of play.
Playing as the team’s third-line centre with Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin on his wings, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up an assist on all three of Edmonton’s goals. The veteran forward noted after the game that the Oilers played their ideal style against the Islanders and Rangers.
“The last two games especially has been the way we want to play – fruatrating teams, lead with our defence, and our offence follows up,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We knew they were coming off a back-to-back and they were travelling, so we wanted to make sure that we came out and got on them. We didn’t want to give them anything easy.”
The Oilers held the Rangers to 22 shots on goal in all situations and only 16 at even strength. They also killed off all three of New York’s power plays. The team blocked 19 shots throughout the game, including a flurry in the final minutes of the third
“Probably the story in the third period was how many blocked shots we had,” Head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Skinner, Podkolzin, I think Walman had five or six. It was a lot of guys digging in and doing the right things.”
Goaltender Stuart Skinner turned aside 21 of the 22 shots that he faced for his 23rd win of the season. The Edmonton native noted how the Oilers played a very strong game in front of him, blocking shots until the final whistle even when they were up by two goals.
“The guys played really well in front of me. Especially at the end when we were 6-on-5, up two goals with just a few seconds to go, and guys are still blocking shots,” Skinner said. “That’s a huge credit to the guys. They don’t have to do that with ten seconds left. It’s huge.”
These two wins against the New York teams represent just the second time this season that the Oilers have allowed one goal against in back-to-back games. They also did so in wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Minnesota Wild back in December.
The team will now return to Edmonton for a four-game homestand and stretch that’ll see the Oilers play five of six games at Rogers Place. They’ll host the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday and then the league-leading Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
