Low-scoring games, high-scoring games, it doesn’t matter. The Edmonton Oilers are finding ways to win games right now.
The Oilers hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday evening and they defeated the 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup champions by a score of 2-1 to improve their season record to 16-10-2 and 34 points.
After having a goal disallowed because of an offside call, the Oilers took a 1-0 for real late in the first period. Connor McDavid took a pass in the neutral zone and walked through both of Tampa Bay’s defenders before roofing a shot on Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning tied the game in the middle of the second period. Evan Bouchard turned the puck over in the defensive zone, Nikita Kucherov passed it over to Jake Guentzel, and the Lightning’s big off-season addition squeaked a shot past Stuart Skinner to make the score 1-1.
The Oilers responded to that goal quickly and jumped back out in front two minutes later. Darnell Nurse made an excellent pass from just inside his own blueline to spring Leon Draisaitl on a breakaway. Vasilevskiy made the initial stop but it bounced off of a Tampa defender when he tried to clear the puck from the net.
In the dying moments of the third period, the Lightning had a 6-on-4 advantage with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the penalty box for tripping and Vasilevskiy on the bench for the extra attacker. Tampa thought that they had scored the tying goal with only a few seconds left on the clock but it was called no-goal.
Takeaways…
With his second-period, go-ahead goal, Leon Draisaitl became the first player in the NHL to reach 20 goals this season, taking the sole lead in the category. Not only that, but it was his ninth consecutive season hitting the 20-goal mark. Mark Messier and Jari Kurri reached that mark in ten consecutive seasons for the Oilers. It’s a safe bet to say Draisaitl will break that club record.
Connor McDavid scored the game’s opening goal, the 57th time he has done that in his career. Only Ryan Smyth (61 times) and Draisaitl (60 times) are ahead of him in franchise history when it comes to game-opening goals. It’s clear that the playoff hangover is over, as McDavid has 14 goals and 38 points in 25 games this season.
Stuart Skinner had another great game, saving 21 of 22 shots for a .955 save percentage, bringing his season save percentage up to .895. Over his past seven starts, Skinner has a .925 save percentage. It took a while, but he looks like a legit starting goalie once again.
The penalty kill continues to do well for the Oilers. They killed off both penalties they took against the Lightning, a highly skilled team with strong power-play units. Edmonton also wasn’t able to convert on either of their power-play opportunities.
Over their last 14 games, the Oilers are 10-3-1. After an early season slump, they’re showing why they are one of the favourites to win the Stanley Cup this season. They trail the Vegas Golden Knights by five points in the Pacific Division standings with a date against them on Saturday afternoon.
But first, the Oilers head to Minnesota to face the Wild on Thursday at 6:30 PM MT. The Wild are currently third in the league with an 18-5-4 record for 40 points. It’s a tough stretch of games for the Oilers.
