It may not have been pretty, but the Edmonton Oilers are back in the win column. On Wednesday night, they returned home after a four-game road trip to host the hot St. Louis Blues, defeating the Central Division team 4-3 to move to within one point of clinching their sixth consecutive post-season appearance. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one! The Blues opened the scoring just under nine minutes into the first period, as Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Suter had a two-on-one opportunity. Buchnevich made a nice pass to the defenceman, and Suter made no mistake with a nice move to beat Calvin Pickard. Of course, it isn’t without controversy, as Jeff Skinner was cross-checked to the neck and held on the backcheck. Early in the second period, Connor McDavid, who was a late addition to the lineup, forced a turnover in the offensive zone, smacking the puck over to Connor Brown. He was left all alone on the side of the net and one-timed it past Jordan Binnington to get the Oilers on the board. With 7:21 left in the second period, a point shot from Darnell Nurse was saved. However, Vasily Podkolzin was sitting right in front of the net and banged in the rebound on his backhand to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
Just 14 seconds into the third period, the Oilers left the trailing Jordan Kyrou open in the slot, and a quick wrister beat Pickard for the tie game. The tie game didn’t last long, as Viktor Arvidsson scored on a delayed penalty to restore the Oilers’ one-goal lead.
Once again, the Blues had an answer. After a brief cycle, Buchnevich received the puck beside the net. Pickard made the initial save, but Buchnevich buried his own rebound to tie the game up with just over 14:30 remaining.
In the final minute, the Blues had a great opportunity, but were stopped by Pickard. The puck transitioned the other way, with McDavid dropping it to Brown, who slipped it past Binnington for the late winner.
Takeaways…
Connor McDavid instantly made an impact in his return, picking up three assists. It was also the best he’s looked since at least the 4 Nations break as he was flying on the ice.
In his nine prior seasons, McDavid has failed to reach 100 points just twice, in his rookie year (where he was injured for a lengthy period of time) and in the 2019-20 season, which was cut short by COVID. With the three assists, he sits on 93 points with four games remaining.
Viktor Arvidsson continues to be one of the best Oilers while seemingly everyone is out of the lineup. He scored his 14th goal of the season, which also happened to be his seventh goal in his last 16 games. He’s starting to look like the top six winger he was expected to be. That was Connor Brown’s best game as an Oiler. The right-winger scored twice to give him 11 goals and 28 points. He’s had a sneakily good season playing in the Oilers’ bottom six. Vasily Podkolzin scored his eighth goal of the season as well.
With the Oilers down to five defenceman in this game, Brett Kulak played a game-high 29:04. The Oilers are super lucky they have him as their bottom-pair defenceman.
The Oilers sadly didn’t clinch a post-season spot, as the Calgary Flames blew a 3-1 lead in the final five minutes, but picked up a point in their overtime loss. A point in their final four games will clinch them a spot in the playoffs. The Oilers also helped out the Flames with the regulation win over the Blues.
With the win, the Oilers have a 45-28-5 record with 95 points, two back of the Los Angeles Kings who have played one fewer game. The two teams matchup next Monday, but first, they’ll face the San Jose Sharks on Friday at 7:30 PM MT.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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