Todd McLellan’s Detroit Red Wings continue to roll.
On Thursday evening, the Wings defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 3-2 in the shootout. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the home team.
Let’s take a look at what happened in this game.
About seven minutes into the first period, Ben Chiarot tried to clear the zone and the puck wound up on Leon Draisaitl’s stick. Of course, he made no mistake in scoring his league-leading 36th goal of the season. It’s not how you draw up the patented Draisaitl power-play one-timer, but you’ll take it.
Later in the first, Adam Henrique did a terrific job winning a puck battle by lifting Michael Rasmussen’s stick. Putting it on the net, the rebound squeaked out to Jeff Skinner as he poked it in for his ninth of the season.
It looked like the Oilers were going to run away with this game at the middle point of the second period. However, the Wings had some fight in the second period. Halfway through the middle frame, Michael Rasmussen deflected a floater past Stuart Skinner to cut Edmonton’s lead in half.
Less than two minutes later, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was sprung on a breakaway, beating Skinner underneath the blocker to tie the game up at two.
Overtime solved nothing, bringing the game to a shootout. This was the Oilers’ first shootout of the season. Unfortunately, the Wings scored twice in the shootout, while the Oilers failed to put one past Alex Lyon.
Takeaways…
Both netminders were fantastic in this game. Stuart Skinner saved 33 of 35 shots for a .943 save percentage. Alex Lyon was even better, saving 44 of 46 shots for a .957 save percentage.
The Oilers’ special teams were solid. They scored on one of their four opportunities and killed off the three penalties they took. They need more of this as the season continues.
Leon Draisaitl scored a power-play goal, his 36th tally of the season. One two other players have hit the 30-goal plateau: Mark Schiefele with 31 and Kyle Connor with 30. Draisaitl also put 10 shots on net, as did Wings captain Dylan Larkin.
With the overtime loss, the Oilers move to 32-15-4 with 68 points. There’s a chance when the Oilers wake up tomorrow that they’re out of the division lead, as the Vegas Golden Knights are currently in-game. Even then, the Oilers will be at most one point behind them with one fewer game played.
The Oilers return to action on Saturday at 5:00 PM MT, as they host the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the first game back in mid-November, Ryan Reaves had a dirty hit on Darnell Nurse, ended with a five-game suspension, and Nurse missed a few games. You have to wonder if there’s any fireworks in this game.
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