The Boston Bruins concluded their five-game road trip with a stop in Edmonton to play the Oilers on Thursday night (Dec. 19). This game was pretty sloppy at times, which resulted from poor breakout passing and bad turnovers. Ultimately, the Oilers came away with the 3-2 overtime victory. With this win, Edmonton improves to 19-11-2, and with the loss, Boston’s record is now 17-13-4. Here’s how we got there.
Game Recap
The Bruins opened the scoring just 1:07 into the contest on a simple wrist shot by Elias Lindholm that found a hole past goaltender Stuart Skinner. Boston then made it 2-0 on Mark Kastelic’s fourth of the season 17:35 into the period. He came in off the rush, cut to the net, and went to the backhand which beat the Edmonton netminder. Boston was by far the better team after 20 minutes, and the scoreboard reflected that.
The Oilers pushed back in the second period and finally got on the board with Zach Hyman’s 11th of the season 11:17 into the middle frame. The puck bounced off the skate of Leon Draisaitl, right to Hyman, and his sharp-angled wrister squeaked past goaltender Jeremy Swayman. That was the only goal in the period as Boston took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Bruins couldn’t hold on late in the third period as Connor McDavid tied the game for Edmonton with 2:21 remaining. He drove hard to the net and jammed it in through Swayman after a Bruins turnover in the neutral zone. Just like that, this game headed to overtime.
In extra time, Mattias Ekholm won the game for the Oilers with his fourth goal of the season only 1:04 in. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a 2-on-1 with Draisaitl, which was denied, but Nugent-Hopkins got the rebound and found Ekholm in the slot, and he ripped the shot upstairs to seal the victory. Skinner stopped 24 of 26 shots for a .923 save percentage (SV%), and Swayman stopped 23 of 26 shots for an .885 SV%.
Both teams are back in action on Saturday (Dec. 21). The Bruins return home to play the Buffalo Sabres, and the Oilers continue their five-game homestand with a matinee against the San Jose Sharks.
