Edmonton Oilers Halt Devils in OT for Two Straight Wins

The Edmonton Oilers remained perfect on their Eastern Conference road trip with their second consecutive win, a 3-2 overtime victory over the Devils Thursday.

New Jersey opened the scoring about five minutes into the first period on a goal from Brian Boyle. The Devils also dominated 12-7 in shots through the first period to have the Oilers trailing 1-0 at the end of the opening frame.

Anton Slepyshev tied it up early in the second on a feed from Milan Lucic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but Drew Stafford scored in the latter minutes of the second to give the Devils the lead again heading into the third.

Milan Lucic evened the score yet again with his third of the season three minutes into the final period of regulation to send the game to overtime, where the Oilers won the game on Leon Draisaitl tally from Connor McDavid and Kris Russell.

Edmonton Oilers

What to Know

Nugent-Hopkins and Lucic both put up multi-point performances. Lucic has points in three of his last four games, and Nugent-Hopkins has points in three of his last five and is on pace to reach the 60-point mark this season.

McDavid and Draisaitl both have points in four of their last five games and are still showing tremendous chemistry. Also, McDavid continued his power over the Devils, and now has a point in each game played against the Devils to date.

Slepyshev’s second-period tally marked his first goal of the season, and he now has a goal and two points in 10 games so far with the Oilers. While he has been inconsistent with his production, he is starting to show more momentum and jump in his game, which should benefit him moving forward.

Oscar Klefbom led all defencemen with over 25 minutes TOI, and Eric Gryba led the charge with six hits. Cam Talbot again bailed his team out on multiple occasions. He stopped 32 of 34 shots on goal and helped the Oilers penalty kill to ensure that the Devils went 0-for-4 on the man advantage.

Take Aways

The Oilers seemed to play a much faster game, but at times, surrendered weak chances and let the Devils get too many good looks and opportunities on net. They need to focus more on shutting down, and also need to show more urgency with the puck.

Edmonton’s second-line also ultimately took charge, and again, the top-six won the Oilers the game. However, they will need to see more scoring from their bottom-six if they want to not only win but to get more chances on goal and to become more of a threat.

Lastly, they need to stay out of the box. Adam Larsson’s holding penalty against Brian Gibbons in the second period was costly, and it was an undisciplined call. In fact, a lot of the calls the Oilers took were weak, and could have and should have been avoided altogether by playing a more disciplined, poised game.

Next: Edmonton Oilers: Positives from Win Over Islanders

Ultimately, this was a strong win for the Oilers, and they will look to make it three straight wins when they head to New York Saturday to take on the Rangers.