Don’t look now, but the Edmonton Oilers are starting to look like themselves once again.
On Sunday evening, they played in the second Battle of Alberta of the season, beating the Calgary Flames by a score of 4-2 to move to 6-5-1. It’s the first time all season the Oilers have been above .500.
For the second consecutive game, the Oilers scored the opening goal in the first minute of the first period. The forecheck of Viktor Arvidsson forced a turnover in the offensive zone, the ring-around ended on Vasily Podkolzin’s stick, and he found Leon Draisaitl all alone in front of the net. A quick backhand made it 1-0 for the Oilers.
The Oilers expanded their lead just over eight minutes into the first period. Zach Hyman broke into the zone and did a terrific job of shielding the puck to get it to Jeff Skinner. The veteran forward showcased great hands from behind the net to tuck his third of the season.
However, the scrappy Flames fought back as they’ve done so often this season. On a Flames’ power play about five minutes into the second period, Anthony Mantha deflected home their first goal of the game after a lengthy review. Tyson Barrie was the player who shot it and picked up his first assist as a Flame.
Around the same time in the third period, the Flames scored their second of the game, as Yegor Sharangovich’s wrister from the point beat Skinner clean off the post. In fairness, the netminder was heavily screened, but the Oilers just took their foot off the gas from the second period onward.
Well, that was until midway through the final frame, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found Zach Hyman streaking in, who roofed it top shelf over Daniel Vladař’s right shoulder for his second of the season and his second in as many games.
The Oilers were the beneficiaries of a Flames mistake on a line change, receiving a power play with just over two minutes left. However, the Flames got their goalie pulled and poured it on. Mattias Janmark was able to ice the game with an empty net with a couple of seconds left.
Takeaways…
The Oilers have been without Connor McDavid for two games, but are 2-0, so welcome to the Noah Philp era I guess. They’ve looked good the past two games, dominating Nashville and finding a way to beat the Flames despite blowing a 2-0 lead after the first period. While neither team looks to be contending for the Stanley Cup, both teams are still dangerous.
Coming into this game, the Oilers were 5-0 when they fought and 0-5-1 when they didn’t fight. Well, they bucked that trend on Sunday, as they were able to win a game without a fight. Still, things got quite chippy at points in the game, especially after Evan Bouchard was tripped late in the second period, as well as after Janmark’s empty net goal.
Stuart Skinner continues to be quite streaky this season, but this was his second-best performance of the year. The netminder saved 29 of 31 shots for a .935 save percentage, including a huge save shortly after the Oilers’ goal to preserve the lead.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is centering his own line and he looks solid. His line with Jeff Skinner and Zach Hyman scored the second goal of the game and he got the primary assist on Hyman’s power-play goal.
Leon Draisaitl has stepped up his game the past two games without McDavid, as he always does. For the second consecutive game, he had a three-point night thanks to two assists and his ninth goal of the season. Draisaitl is now tied for fifth in league goal-scoring, just one behind the league leaders.
For the third time this season, the Oilers will have a back-to-back. On Monday, they’ll return home to host the New Jersey Devils at 6:30 PM MT on Amazon Prime. This is the first of three back-to-backs this month.
