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It’s been a long time since the Edmonton Oilers dropped a No. 2.
Just when it looked like they were about to lose back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since early November, Connor McDavid scored late in regulation and Mattias Ekholm scored early in overtime to give the hosts a 3-2 comeback win over the shell-shocked Boston Bruins.
The Oilers transformed themselves into a model of consistency since starting the season 0-3, losing back-to-back games in regulation just once in the last 29 games. The last time they lost two in a row in regulation was Nov. 4 and 6 to Vegas and New Jersey. They’ve gone 13-4-1 since then.
It was supposed to help that the Oilers caught Boston on the last stop of a five-game, 10-day western road trip, but the Bruins looked fast and sharp in putting the home team on its heels early on.
Puck management and team defence became Edmonton’s talking points this week after Florida hung six goals on them and Vegas would have scored at least that many in the game before that if Stuart Skinner hadn’t masked the mistakes.
So falling behind 1-0 on Boston’s first shot of the game, then 2-0 at 17:35 with the shots 11-3 Bruins, isn’t at all what the Oilers were expecting from themselves. It was a horrid start to a big game. It’s also the fifth time this season that the Oilers were down 1-0 on the first shot of the game.
Edmonton shored up its game in the second period, holding Boston to six shots, and got rewarded when Zach Hyman, broken nose, bubble shield and all, scored his eighth goal in the last seven games to cut the lead to 2-1 at the second intermission. When they say hockey players are tough, this is what they’re talking about.
The offence that had been shooting the lights out during Edmonton’s recent hot streak (30 goals in the previous six games) finally paid off with 2:21 left in regulation. Head coach Kris Knoblauch loaded up his top line with McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Hyman from the start of the second period and they finally connected with the late equalizer.
The Ekholm saved the day 1:04 into OT to lift Edmonton to 19-11-2 on the season.
LATE HITS: Knoblauch switched up the defence pairings midway through the night, breaking up Evan Bouchard and Ekholm and moving Brett Kulak with Bouchard and Ty Emberson with Ekholm. … Draisaitl finished the night with three assists, giving him 900 career points and extending his run of multi-point games to seven and counting.
