The Edmonton Oilers are on a winning streak following a 4-3 overtime victory against the Utah Hockey Club on Friday. Despite a sluggish start, strong play from the special teams and some clutch goals from key players led to a comeback win for the visiting team.
Sluggish start for the Oilers
This was the first game back for the Oilers following a five-day miniature bye week and the rust was noticeable. Utah outshot Edmonton 12-to-5 in the first frame and the Hockey Club got out to an early 2-0 load thanks to goals from Alex Kerfoot and Logan Cooley.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said after the game that the players had a “hard talk” during the first intermission that helped get the team on track for the second and third periods.
“We just needed to get going there. We weren’t playing to our standard,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Sometimes, you need to have a hard talk within your group. Nobody was calling each other out, nothing like that. We knew that we had better and obviously, we showed that in the second and third.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch noted that it can be powerful for players to hear a message from their teammates rather than the coaching staff. He also added that the Oilers were aware the level of play they brought in the first period was nowhere near good enough.
“We absolutely addressed that it wasn’t good enough and it’s very powerful when it comes from the players,” Knoblauch said. “So if players are calling each other out, that’s very good on them. They responded and played better. I still think we had more to play or get better at, but they know that that’s not an acceptable level of play. They know they can play better than that.”
The Oilers came out with a much better effort in the second period and tightened things up after their slow start. Leon Draisaitl said that the team started taking more pride in playing with the puck rather than just throwing it away.
“I think we just found our legs and started to just take pride in playing with the puck,” Draisaitl said. “When you throw pucks away and don’t take care of them, you’re defending a lot because you don’t have it. If you take care of the puck and value the puck and make good plays, then you’re going to have it a lot more. That snowballs into looks and chances.”
Vasily Podkolzin is heating up
The Oilers rallied with three goals in the second period to take the lead from Utah. The first one came from Vasily Podkolzin, who now has goals in back-to-back games after going nearly two years without scoring in the NHL.
Acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for a fourth-round pick after Dylan Holloway signed an offer sheet with the St. Louis Blues, Podkolzin has been a very nice addition for the Oilers. The tenth overall pick from the 2019 draft only has seven points through 23 games but he does little things that help the team even when he’s not on the scoresheet. The Russian winger has an on-ice shot attempt differential of 340-to-216 at even strength and leads the team with 55 hits despite the excellent possession numbers.
Podkolzin scored 14 goals and 26 points over 23 games in his rookie season with the Canucks in 2021-22 and then scored only nine points over 58 NHL games between 2022-23 and 2023-24. He was granted a change of scenery in the off-season and landed in a very favourable position on Leon Draisaitl’s wing.
Special teams are making a difference
The turning point of the game came in the second period when Ty Emberson was called for a two-minute hooking penalty. Utah had a prime opportunity to steal Edmonton’s momentum shortly after Podkolzin put them on the board but the Oilers shut the Hockey Club down with a very effective penalty kill.
After that, Utah defenders Olli Maatta and Robert Bortuzzo took minor penalties a few minutes apart and the Oilers capitalized on both power play opportunities. Leon Draisaitl wired a one-timer to make the score 2-2 and Connor McDavid put the Oilers in front 3-2 with a snipe from the faceoff circle.
“Our penalty kill certainly [has come around],” Draisaitl said. “I think our power play, we scored two big ones tonight, which is great, but we still got work to do there. We’re looking to get better every day.”
Just a few weeks ago, the Oilers had a league-worst penalty kill efficiency of around 50 percent. They fended off their one penalty against Utah and have now killed 17 straight opposing power play opportunities, putting their PK rating at 71.43 percent on the season.
Calvin Pickard is back in the win column
The Oilers largely controlled play in the third period but Utah was able to tie the game early in the final frame. Not long after Lawson Crouse knotted the score at 3-3, Nick Schmaltz fed a pass across Edmonton’s crease but goaltender Cal Pickard stretched out and robbed Clayton Keller of what looked like a sure goal.
“Huge, especially after they just got one and then came back,” Nugent-Hopkins said about Pickard’s save. “They made a good play there. He has to get all the way across. They get a lead and it’s tough to pull your way back against any team, and I think this team has taken a lot of steps in our defence and the way we play. It’s harder to create opportunities, so it was a massive save at a huge time for us.”
Making his first since last week’s 3-0 loss in Montreal, Pickard turned aside 28 of 31 shots against Utah to get back in the win column. Edmonton’s backup goalie has an .895 save percentage over nine appearances this season. That doesn’t seem very good at a glance, but Pickard’s save percentage is .913 since allowing five goals in his first start of the season against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Vintage Ryan Nugent-Hopkins snipe
The score remained tied at 3-3 after 60 minutes of play so Edmonton and Utah went to a five-minute period of three-on-three overtime to decide the game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made an excellent play in the defensive zone to spring himself on a partial break and he made no mistake, sniping a shot low blocker side on lefty Karel Vejmelka.
It’s been a slow start to the season offensively for Nugent-Hopkins, as the longest-serving Oiler has three goals and 10 points through 23 games this season. Though he hasn’t been producing at his usual level, RNH has continued to play sound a defensive game either as McDavid’s left-winger or as the team’s second-line centre.
“I thought he had a really good game tonight,” Knoblauch said. “He was making a lot of nice plays, and obviously, the biggest play was putting the puck in during overtime. He worked hard to create that turnover and turn around to get that opportunity.”
“Nuggy is a clutch player,” Draisaitl said. “He plays really well in tight games and obviously, for him to get rewarded, we probably get more excited about it than he does. But a great play by him all around.”
The first-ever trip to Salt Lake City started slowly but ended in an exciting 4-3 win for Edmonton. The Oilers will be back in action on Saturday night when they play the second leg of this weekend’s back-to-back in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche.
