For the second night in a row, the Edmonton Oilers used a big third period to register a come-from-behind road win.
On Friday, it resulted in a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers. This came after a 6-3 win over New Jersey on Thursday.
“Stuart gave us an opportunity to win tonight,” Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said after their latest game. “I thought we were very flat in the first period and the start of the second he held the score down to just one against and made some really big saves. And we were able to build a game and played much better in the second half of the game, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Stuart’s saves that he made.”
The Rangers scored the only goal of the first period when Mika Zibanejad made a deft one touch pass from behind the net to Blake Wheeler, who fired a shot past Stuart Skinner.
The teams traded several good scoring chances in the second but neither could score. Skinner came across to deny Chris Krieder on a shorthanded two-on-one. The Oilers peppered Jonathan Quick on their two power play chances, but the veteran netminder came up big time and again. He robbed Zach Hyman in tight and denied Leon Draisaitl on his patented one-timer.
The Oilers finally solved Quick with two goals 1:10 apart early in the third. Hyman took a pass from Mattias Ekholm and went to the backhand for his 19th. Then Evander Kane tracked down his own rebound and slid the puck under Quick.
It didn’t stop there. Warren Foegele ripped a shot past Quick’s blocker for his fifth. Foegele then kept a puck alive and set up Ryan McLeod for his fifth. All told it was four goals in 6:45 for Edmonton.
Zibanejad shoved in a power play goal to pull the Rangers within two with 4:18 left. Will Cuylle beat Skinner with one-tenth of a second on the clock.
Skinner finished with 31 saves. Foegele and McLeod both had a goal and an assist.
Last season on November 26, the Oilers scored four third period goals to beat the Rangers 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.
The Oilers, 15-15-1, are back at in Thursday, December 28, when they visit the San Jose Sharks (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 7 p.m., game at 8:30 p.m.)