Zach Hyman posted his second hat trick of the season as the Edmonton Oilers crushed the Carolina Hurricanes 6-1 Wednesday night at Rogers Place.
It was the start of a six-game home stand for the Oilers, who have won five in a row.
The Oilers blitzed the Hurricanes with four goals in the first period, including two in the first 41 seconds. Ryan McLeod converted a pass from Warren Foegele 28 seconds into the game, then Mattias Ekholm tapped home a feed from Connor McDavid.
“I thought it was a real mature effort tonight,” Foegele said post-game. “We pot two goals quick and then we stayed with it. We weren’t cheating for offence after that lead–just solid checking by the whole team. To win in this league you’ve got to hold leads and it was nice that we did that.”
Zach Hyman spun out of the corner and stuffed in his 13th at the 5:46 mark, chasing Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov who allowed three goals on six shots. Hyman would strike again later in the period, ripping a wrister behind Antti Raanta.
“Just a huge start and then obviously we were able to settle in, and I thought Stu made some big saves. It was a great team win,” Hyman said.
“He plays the right way. He doesn’t take shortcuts,” Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game. “He’s finding ways to score goals and it’s nice to see because he’s not taking shortcuts on the defensive side to score those goals.”
Early in the second, Mattias Janmark blocked a shot at the Oilers blue line. The carom sent Warren Foegele in on a breakaway. He stuffed in his fourth to snap a 16-game goalless drought.
“When you go through stretches where you don’t score, that’s where you tell yourself you have to do the little things and the points will even out at the end of the year, and I think that’s what we saw tonight,” Janmark said. “That’s a play you try to make every game, whether you’re scoring or not, and the fact it ends up as an apple is a plus.”
“I think he’s a really smart hockey player,” Knoblauch said about Janmark. “He takes care of the puck, does the little things, blocks shots–Foegele benefitted from a great block from Janny.”
Jordan Staal put Carolina on the board with 12:55 to go in the third. The Oilers replied less than three minutes later. McDavid showed off some dazzling stick-handling, then flipped a pass to Hyman who notched his third of the night.
Janmark and McDavid both had three assists. Evan Bouchard had two assists to extend his point streak to nine games.
Stuart Skinner earned the win in goal with 38 saves.
The Oilers will host Minnesota on Friday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.).