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One game after the Edmonton Oilers roared out of the gate in Dallas with their best 30 minutes of the season, only to lose 4-1, they were once again caught in precarious speed wobble on their way to the finish line Tuesday.
They went over the handle bars with six seconds left in overtime.
In a fierce goaltending battle that the Oilers were winning 2-0 at the second intermission, they let the evening deteriorate into a fire drill, with the Canes scoring twice in the third period and Sebastian Aho scoring in overtime to steal a 3-2 decision.
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The Oilers fall to 2-4-1 on the season and will be lamenting another one that they let get away down the stretch.
Parts of Edmonton’s game were tracking in the right direction in this one. They scored once on the power play, and got an outstanding 30-save performance from goaltender Stuart Skinner. But two goals from Connor McDavid weren’t enough to get it done as the rest of the top six continues to slumber and the penalty kill gave up its 10th goal in seven games.
POWER MOVE
McDavid put the Oilers on the board in a hurry, scoring at 3:34 of the opening period to move into a tie with Brett Kulak for the team lead in scoring.
After that, Carolina pressed hard and had Edmonton on the ropes for the rest of the period. That’s when the Oilers needed their power play to give them a boost, but it went 0-for-2 in the first period to fall to 1-for-17 on the season.
The third time was a charm, with McDavid taking advantage of a really cheap hooking call on Seth Jarvis early in the second period to make it 2-0.
That was it for the offence, though, as the lowest-scoring team in the NHL continues to struggle for goals.
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CUE THE COMEBACK
Edmonton had a nice 40-minute lead, but it was only a matter of time before the Hurricanes started scoring. They were pressing hard all night and had more than their share of sitters, point-blank chances and wide-open nets in the first 40 minutes but they were absolutely hapless around the Oilers net.
And when and they did find the handle, Skinner responded with his best game of the season.
But they eventually broke through. Skinner made a couple of unbelievable acrobatic saves to start a third-period penalty kill, but Mattias Janmark couldn’t clear the puck and Carolina made good on it’s third shot, closing the lead to 2-1 with 19 minutes to play.
Martin Necas then sent it to overtime.
LATE HITS — Edmonton’s penalty kill went 1-for-2, giving up it’s 10th goal of the season. … Zach Hyman was all alone in front on a two-on-one with McDavid and couldn’t convert, extending his pointless streak to seven games. … Leon Draisaitl’s cross-checking minor in the first period keeps him in the team lead in penalty minutes with five minors in seven games.
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