EDMONTON – Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers won their third straight game, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 on Friday.
Jesse Joensuu, Leon Draisaitl, Matt Hendricks and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers (3-4-1), who have turned things around on their current homestand after a troubling beginning to the season.
Riley Nash, Jeff Skinner and Jay Harrison responded for the Hurricanes, the only team in the NHL yet to record a win. They are off to a franchise-worst 0-5-2 start.
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There was almost an early start to the scoring as Hurricane Jay McClement hit a post behind Oilers starter Ben Scrivens in the opening minute.
Carolina had 15 shots on Scrivens in a scoreless first period, while the Oilers put 10 on Anton Khudobin in the Hurricanes net.
Edmonton finally scored the first goal of the game midway through the second period as Eberle picked off Harrison’s clearing pass and went in on a two-on-one, dishing it off to Taylor Hall before getting it back and scoring his first goal of the season.
Carolina tied the game up with five minutes left in the middle frame as Nash tipped a Justin Faulk point shot past Scrivens to make it 1-1.
The Oilers regained the advantage two minutes later as Khudobin mishandled a Nikita Nikitin shot, allowing Joensuu to bang in there bound from the doorstep.
However, Carolina came right back to knot the game 2-2 with two minutes left in the second as Skinner fought off Martin Marincin and then sniped the top corner for his first of the year.
Edmonton moved ahead once more four-and-a-half minutes into the third period with a power-play goal as Eberle used Hall as a screen before beating Khubodin glove-side with a slap shot. Carolina complained that there should have been a penalty on the play to Edmonton’s Benoit Pouliot after breaking his stick on a slash of Hurricane defender Brett Bellemore, who then turned the puck over to Eberle.
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The Hurricanes battle back eight minutes into the third as Scrivens got caught out of position after trying to play the puck behind the net, allowing Harrison to score on a wrist shot through traffic.
Edmonton went up 4-3 with seven minutes left as Draisaitl scored his first NHL goal, picking up his own rebound and sending a backhand into the net. Draisaitl, the third overall pick in the 2014 Entry Draft, was playing his eighth game with one more to go before the Oilers need to decide whether to keep him for the entire season or send him down to junior with Prince Albert of the Western Hockey League.
The Oilers added some insurance with four minutes left as Hall raced to negate an icing and then crowded the front of the net, allowing Nugent-Hopkins to score his third goal in as many games.
Hendricks sealed the deal with an empty-net goal. The Oilers play the fifth game of a season-long seven-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. The Hurricanes conclude a five-game road trip in Vancouver on Tuesday.
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