All the Edmonton Oilers know how to do is win.
Despite going down 2-0 in the first period to the formidable Minnesota Wild, the Oilers won the final game of the season series by a score of 5-3 to win their third consecutive game. Let’s take a look at what happened. The Wild opened the scoring three minutes into the game, as Matt Boldy made a strong move to the centre of the ice to beat Calvin Pickard for the 1-0 lead. Minnesota extended their lead late in the game, once again on the power play as Boldy made a nice move to allude his defender and made a nice cross-ice pass to Marco Rossi. The former Ottawa 67’s forward made no mistake burying the puck.
However, the Oilers cut the lead in half less than a minute later, as Zach Hyman was sprung on a breakaway, beating the Wild’s netminder five-hole for his 15th goal of the season.
The Oilers tied the game with 92 seconds left in the first period, as Evan Bouchard’s slap shot from the point missed the net and bounced to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who passed it over to Connor McDavid. Edmonton’s captain made no mistake as he had a wide-open net.
Just over four minutes into the second period, the Oilers won a defensive zone face-off, but Ryan Hartman was the first on it and put it past Pickard to retake the lead.
With just under six minutes left in the middle frame, a shot from Ty Emberson was deflected by Nugent-Hopkins, beating the Wild Filip Gustavsson top shelf for one of the best deflected goals I’ve seen in a while. He has six goals in his past 10 games.
The Oilers scored the game-winning goal early in the third period, as Vasily Podkolzin’s pass deflected off a Wild defender’s skate and into the back of the net. To add insult to injury, Darnell Nurse crashed the net and knocked over Gustavsson, with the goal standing.
McDavid scored an insurance goal with just over seven minutes left in the game, holding the puck on a 2-on-1 and beating Gustavsson with very little space on a terrible angle. It’s truly special we get to watch him.
Takeaways…
That was one of the chippiest games we’ve seen all season. Connor McDavid popped out his elbow and hit Marcus Johansson in the face. No penalty was assessed, by McDavid may have to pay a fine. Early in the third period, Ryan Hartman kicked out Leon Draisaitl’s feet behind the net, knocking down the Hart Memorial front-runner.
If you recall, Hartman made a dirty play in the last matchup between the teams, knocking Evan Bouchard into the net in a blowout game. It must be said that a playoff matchup between the two teams would be incredibly exciting.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is on a heater as of late, scoring six goals and eight points in his past 10 games. McDavid had a three-point night, scoring twice, while nine of the 18 skaters picked up a point. Vasily Podkolzin has two goals in his last three games.
Speaking of McDavid, his three-point night brings him to 1,043 points as an Oiler, second all-time in Oiler scoring. He passed fellow legend Jari Kurri, and is still 625 points behind Gretzky.
Calvin Pickard played well, saving 31 shots on 34 shots to give him a .912 save percentage. He made numerous big saves in the third period to hold the Wild at bay. Not a bad result from your backup netminder playing a top-10 team in the league in points.
Next up, the Oilers face the Colorado Avalanche for the first time this season in Denver. With the win, the Oilers moved to 28-13-3 with 59 points, just two points behind the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights with an equal number of games played.
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