The Edmonton Oilers won their third in a row, hanging on a for a 2-1 road win over the Seattle Kraken Saturday afternoon.
“Stuart was outstanding,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game. “Early on there were some mishaps of the pucks; missed passes led to good scoring chances. Second period I thought we played really well, didn’t give up very much. And then third period, the last 10 minutes, we were just holding on. Especially on the penalty kill at the end of the game where Stuart made some really big saves, especially the one with just a few seconds left, with the blocker, short side there. Stuart played really well.”
The Oilers didn’t have much spark early but were bailed out by Skinner. He made a save on a wide open Yanni Gourde in the first minute, then denied Jordan Eberle from in tight a few minutes later.
Skinner continued to play well in the second. Leon Draisaitl provided some offence with a one-timer goal off a pass from Connor McDavid with 9:48 to go in the period.
Brett Kulak provided some insurance with 8:02 left in third when his long point shot eluded Philipp Grubauer.
“It always feels good contributing that way,” Kulak said. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but when you see one go in it feels good. It was a tight game, there wasn’t too may goals happening and it proved to be a big one. It was exciting. It feels good.”
Seattle responded quickly with a power play goal. Eeli Tolvanen’s pass went off Darnell Nurse’s glove then off Skinner’s pads before crossing the line.
The Kraken went on another power play with 53 seconds left when Draisaitl was called for holding Jared McCann. Skinner made a pad save on a Tolvanen one-timer, then extended his blocker to deny Eberle at the side of the net.
“I definitely felt good,” Skinner said. “I felt good right off the bat. I got into the game pretty quickly. I think their first two chances were pretty good ones and when you stop both of them you tend to feel a little bit better about the night. Being able to make the saves that I was able to come up with brings up the confidence for sure going into the rest of the night.”
Skinner finished with 24 saves. McDavid extended his point streak to ten games.
The Oilers, 36-20-2, will host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.).
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