The Edmonton Oilers looked like they were going to cruise to their fourth consecutive victory on Thursday night.
Hosting the red-hot Detroit Red Wings, the home team got out to an early lead with a dominant first period. Leon Draisaitl buried a goal on the power play and Jeff Skinner found a rebound a few minutes later to put the Oilers on top by two.
With the Oilers up 2-0 and doubling the Wings in shots after 20 minutes, Detroit head coach Todd McLellan let his team hear about their underwhelming effort during the first intermission.
“We flat out didn’t have enough players going and that was the conversation between periods,” McLellan said after the game. “We had 10 or 12 players that were giving us what we needed and we had passengers. The challenge was to find three or four more in the second period. We didn’t know who was going to step up or where it was going to come from, but we found two or three more in the second and two or three more in the third.”
It took until nearly halfway through the game, but Detroit showed why they’ve been one of the best teams in the NHL over the past month and change. Michael Rasmussen deflected a shot past Stuart Skinner to put the Wings on the board in the middle of the second frame and then Dylan Larkin scored on a breakaway two minutes later to erase Edmonton’s two-goal lead.
“He came in and had some words with us after the first (period),” said Larkin, who led Detroit forwards with just over 25 minutes on ice and the game-tying goal. “We knew we had to get going but credit to him for getting us going that way.”
The two teams remained tied at 2-2 through the third period with both goaltenders making big saves to send the game beyond regulation time. A five-minute three-on-three overtime period didn’t solve anything, so the Oilers and Red Wings went to a shootout, which the visiting team won with two goals in two rounds.
The star of the game was Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon, who turned aside 45 shots in the victory. He looked a little shaky in the first period but settled down after allowing two early goals and was rock-solid the rest of the way.
“Alex was obviously a key to the victory,” McLellan said. “He faced a lot of shots. Not all of them dangerous but there were some succession type shots that he had to be alert and get us some whistles. That’s why goalies wear the same-coloured jerseys as everybody else. He’s there to provide the security and he did that.”
The Red Wings have now won four games in a row and are 12-4-1 since McLellan took over for Derek Lalonde behind the bench in late December. After being well out of the playoff race in the Eastern Conference just one month ago, Detroit is now only two points back of a Wild Card spot.
The Oilers will have one more game on this six-game homestand, a Hockey Night in Canada meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. They’re 3-1-1 so far through five consecutive home games.
