Despite the referee’s best efforts, the Edmonton Oilers snapped their losing streak on Tuesday night in St. Louis.
The Oilers played the first game of a back-to-back on the road, facing off against Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg, and the St. Louis Blues. They trailed late but pulled off a 3-2 overtime victory to snap a two-game losing skid. Let’s get into the highlights.
It took a while for the first goal, but Connor McDavid opened the scoring about six minutes into the second period, beating his soon-to-be-teammate Jordan Binnington over the blocker on the power play. The Oilers held a 1-0 lead going into the second intermission. Just over three and a half minutes into the third period, Mattias Ekholm laid a massive hit on Brayden Schenn. The puck was near Schenn’s feet but Ekholm was called for an interference penalty. More on this in the takeaways.
This was a major momentum changer for St. Louis, as the Oilers appeared to be cruising to an easy win before the penalty was called on Ekholm. While on the power play, Dylan Holloway’s shot was saved, but the puck found its way across the crease for an easy Jordan Kyrou tap-in to tie the score up at 1-1.
The momentum was firmly in St. Louis’ hands at this point. A pass across the crease and a blown coverage allowed defenceman Colton Parayko to clap home his 12th of the season with about 11 minutes left to go in the game.
Thankfully, the Oilers were able to tie the score with just over two minutes left, as Leon Draisaitl buried his league-leading 37th goal of the season from his office. The Oilers have probably scored more goals with their net empty than they have scored on the empty net.
Connor Brown scored the first overtime goal of his career to wrap this game up. Evan Bouchard had a nice zone entry and left it for McDavid, who attacked the slot and found Brown on the doorstep for the one-timer.
Takeaways…
I’m not really a blame-the-referee type of person but the refs had a terrible game. Firstly, that call on Mattias Ekholm was terrible as it had no business being a penalty. It had ramifications as well, giving the Blues a ton of momentum. The thing is, the refs missed two clear calls as well, one on the Blues when they boarded Zach Hyman and one on Leon Draisaitl who tipped a Blue early in overtime. Refs just have to be better.
Speaking of Draisaitl, his game-tying goal was his league-leading 37th of the season. Give him every single award possible. Thankfully, that game-tying goal wasn’t called back for offside this time.
Stuart Skinner had a solid game, saving 20 of the 22 shots he faced for a .909 save percentage. Hard to blame him for either of the goals the Blues scored and he made a couple of big saves. More of this from him.
With the win and the Vegas Golden Knights loss, the Oilers took sole possession of the Pacific Division with 70 points. Moreover, the Oilers have one fewer game played, which they’ll make up on Wednesday with a game against the Chicago Blackhawks at 7:30 PM MT.
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