Oilers’ Draisaitl, McDavid tied atop NHL scoring race after win at Boston
Edmonton goalie Mike Smith took a deep sigh when asked how it felt to finally get a victory. The Oilers had a little bit of help from the Boston Bruins, too.
Smith made 35 saves for his first victory since Nov. 23rd as Edmonton won for the second time in five games (2-2-1). Leon Draisaitl added an empty-net goal.
«It’s been a while since me personally was in for a win,» Smith said after the pause. «Obviously you want to contribute to the team’s success. That was a great team effort by everyone.»
WATCH | McDavid scores a beauty:
It was just Boston’s second home loss in regulation (14-2-9).
‘I made a mistake and it went in’
«Against a team like that, obviously you’ve got to manage the puck a little better,» Boston centre David Krejci said. «They have good forwards. If you make them chase the puck a lot, they get frustrated. I don’t think we managed the puck well today.»
Nurse’s goal with 6.3 seconds left in the second gave the Oilers a 2-1 edge. He fired what looked like a relatively easy shot to handle from the left circle, but the puck slipped into the net between the post and Halak’s right shoulder.
«I don’t even know how it went in honestly,» Halak said. «I thought I was right there. Hockey is a game of mistakes. I made a mistake and it went in.»
The Oilers tied it 1-1 in the second when Boston winger Jake DeBrusk turned the puck over right in front of his own net — whiffing on a pass — and Haas slipped a shot under Halak 7:41 into the period.
«That was a gift,» Haas said, breaking into a laugh.
Halak denies McDavid twice
Edmonton has three points in the first two of a five-game road trip.
«We talked about playing a full 60 minutes and competing hard for the 60 minutes and building on the team things we’re doing right now,» Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. «We capitalized on a couple of chances.»
Halak made a pair of splendid stops on McDavid in the opening period. On the first, he flashed his right pad when the centre came in alone down the left wing. The second was even better; the goalie quickly slid across the crease to block his wrister from the right circle at the end of a 2-on-1 break when McDavid had a wide-open shot after a cross-ice pass.
The Oilers entered the day with the league’s best penalty-killing unit on the road at 91 per cent, but the Bruins need just five seconds to score on their first opportunity.
With Draisaitl in the box for elbowing Torey Krug, Pastrnak fired a wrister from the left circle that hit the stick of Edmonton defenceman Kris Russell and popped into the right corner of the net under the crossbar 3:10 into the game, extending his point streak to 10 games.
Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are the first set of Boston teammates to reach 60 points before the team’s 45th game since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in 1974-75.
