Coming off an embarrassing 7-3 loss, the Edmonton Oilers were once again beaten by a team on the second half of a back-to-back.

On Tuesday evening, the Oilers hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs in the penultimate game before the Olympic break, with the Oilers dropping this one 5-2. Let’s take a look at what happened in this one.

After a scoreless first period, the Leafs found twine first. Seven minutes into the second period, the Oilers made a line change at the wrong time once again, leading to a two-on-one for the Leafs. Connor Ingram stopped the two initial shots, but the puck was passed to the point, and Jake McCabe’s shot was deflected into the back of the net by Matias Maccelli.

Midway through the second period, the Oilers managed to tie the game. Jack Roslovic was helped on an offensive zone faceoff by Josh Samanski, passing the puck back to Jake Walman. The Oilers’ defenceman ripped one past Anthony Stolarz to tie the game up at one.

That tie game lasted for nine seconds. Off the faceoff, the Leafs dumped it in, then Ingram turned it over. A cutting Matthew Knies was able to sneak into the slot with speed, beating the sprawling netminder to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead.

Moving to the third period, the Oilers tied the game four and half minutes into the final frame. Podkolzin made a nice pass behind his back to Kasperi Kapanen, with the Finnish winger driving into the middle of the slot. He was able to beat Stolarz with a nice shot for his fourth of the season.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Matthew Savoie took an interference penalty, then Mattias Janmark took a high sticking penalty shortly after, setting up a long five-on-three for the Leafs. They didn’t even need the one minute and 54 seconds, as John Taveres scored the Leafs’ third goal with just over 12 minutes left, the Maccelli scored 31 seconds after that.

A potential future Oiler, Bobby McMann, iced it with an empty netter with about two and a half minutes left in the game.

The turning point of this game was the back-to-back penalties to give the Leafs a long five-on-three. After scoring the game tying goal, the Oilers had all the momentum until that Matthew Savoie interference penalty. There was a possibility of killing that, but Mattias Janmark’s high-sticking penalty six seconds later was the nail in the coffin. Way too much time for the league’s fourth-best power play.

Connor Ingram stopped 22 of 26 shots for an .846 save percentage, but made quite a handful of big saves, especially in the second period. The difference was Anthony Stolarz, as the former (albeit brief) Oiler stopped 34 of 36 saves for a .944 percentage.

In recent times, Bobby McMann has been linked to the Oilers, and he iced the game. Likewise, Andrew Mangiapane, who drew into the lineup for Curtis Lazar, has been linked to the Leafs in the past, and he had a solid game. In the first, he got into a handful of scrums and had a solid scoring chance. Who knows what lies ahead for the forward.

There was a fight in this game. In the second period, Brandon Carlo hit Connor McDavid hard. The following shift, Darnell Nurse dropped the mitts with his fellow #25. Trent Frederic was on the ice when McDavid was hit, but he attempted to go after Jake McCabe instead.

Other positives include a goal from Kasperi Kapanen, with Vasily Podkolzin getting the primary assist. Moreover, Josh Samanski picked up his second NHL point ahead of the upcoming Olympics. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were held off the scoresheet.

The Oilers have just one more game before the Olympic break, as they head down Highway 2 to face their bitter provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames. That game has a 8 PM MT start time, let’s hope they head into the break with a win.