EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers haven’t had a ton of success in extra time this season, but they finally found a way to win one on Saturday.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a pair of goals, including the game winner 2:46 into overtime as the Oilers came away with a 5-4 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“It was definitely nice to get an overtime winner, we haven’t been too successful in extra time this season, so any time you get a chance to bury it you have to capitalize,” Nugent-Hopkins said.
Teddy Purcell, Matt Hendricks and Jordan Eberle scored in regulation time for the Oilers (20-39-13), who have won two of their last three.
Oilers forward Taylor Hall returned to the lineup after missing 23 of Edmonton’s last 24 games and earned an assist on the game winner.
“I felt pretty brutal at the start and improved as the game went on,” he said. “My conditioning is fine, it’s just when you get into a game it’s hard to take deep breaths and when your mind is racing, it’s hard to recover. By the end, I felt pretty good. I got better as the game wore on.”
Claude Giroux had a pair of goals and Ryan White and Michael Raffl also replied for the Flyers (29-29-16), who have lost four in a row and eight of their last nine.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing not being able to find a way to win this game,” Giroux said. “We did a lot of good things. We just have to be better.”
The Flyers fell to 9-20-10 this season on the road.
“If we had an answer for that, we could correct it,” said Flyers goalie Ray Emery, who was called upon to start when Steve Mason came down with an illness shortly before the game. “We have a good record at home, but haven’t been getting it done on the road.”
Edmonton started the scoring just 51 seconds into the contest as Eberle stole a puck from defenceman Nicklas Grossman behind the Flyers net and sent it in front to Nugent-Hopkins, who scored his 21st goal of the season past Emery.
The Flyers tied it four-and-a-half minutes into the first period as Giroux scored his 20th with a quick wrist shot from the slot that beat Edmonton starter Ben Scrivens.
Philadelphia made it 2-1 with eight minutes to play in the opening frame as Giroux sent a power-play shot through traffic into the net for his second of the game.
A couple minutes later it was 3-1 as a Nikita Nikitin give-away led to a two-on-one that was finished off by White.
Edmonton got one back with four minutes left in the first as Purcell scored on a one-time blast in tight.
The scoring kept coming as the Oilers tied it 3-3 with 31 seconds left in the first as a rebound dropped in front of Hendricks on the doorstep and he banged it past Emery.
Just over a minute into the second, Edmonton regained the lead as Benoit Pouliot sprung Eberle, who scored on the backhand.
The Flyers tied it at 4-4 just 46 seconds into the third period as Raffl scored on a hard wrist shot from the top of the circle.
The Oilers return to action on Monday when they host the Winnipeg Jets. The Flyers return home to face Chicago on Wednesday.
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