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Edmonton Oilers’ win streak ends in Winnipeg

Winnipeg Jets' Joel Armia (40), Mathieu Perreault (85), Bryan Little (18) and Tyler Myers (57) celebrate Little's goal as Edmonton Oilers' Andrej Sekera (2) looks on during the first period NHL action in Winnipeg on Wednesday, December 27, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

The Edmonton Oilers’ four-game winning streak ended Wednesday night with a 4-3 loss in Winnipeg.

The Oilers opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl broke in on a two-on-nothing. McDavid went to his backhand and dropped the puck to Draisaitl, who chipped the puck over Connor Hellebuyck’s right pad. It was the Oilers’ seventh shortie of the season, tying them with Detroit for the league lead.

“I feel like everybody bought in, everybody was making smart plays. We had a few chances to tie it up,” Jujhar Khaira said after the game. “I just thought we responded well in the third and we need to carry the third into the next game. We can’t give away these kind of games.”

The Jets came back just after that power play expired when Bryan Little banged home a rebound off the backboards. Joel Armia whistled in a shot to make it 2-1 Winnipeg. The Oilers responded less than two minutes later. Jesse Puljujarvi slammed in a rebound from a Kris Russell point shot.

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Kyle Connor puts the Jets in front 54 seconds into the second frame. Armia added a breakaway goal at 9:48.  Khaira got one back for the Oilers, who were outshot 18-9 in the second.

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The Oilers killed off two power plays in the third, then went on a man advantage with 8:07 left when the Jets were called for too many men. However, they couldn’t find the equalizer. Cam Talbot was pulled for a sixth attacker with 2:23 left. The Oilers applied intense pressure but couldn’t tie it. Milan Lucic’s last-gasp shot — from the right slot with two seconds left — flew just over the crossbar.

“I thought just the sharpness in our game wasn’t there. It led to a lot of opportunities and we kind of fed into it,” Oilers forward Mark Letestu said after the game. “[The] good news is we get these guys in a couple of days to show what we really have.”

Jets leading scorer Mark Scheifele left the game in the second period after sliding into the boards. He appeared to be favouring his right shoulder.

All seven of Puljujarvi’s goals have been scored on the road. Draisaitl extended his point streak to five games.

“I thought that the work ethic and the commitment to wanting to work hard was there tonight, but our hockey smarts didn’t exist,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said after the game. “A lot of times we were stepping up in the neutral zone with poor support behind — faceoff execution, number of turnovers — stuff we need to do a much better job of against a team like that. They had their share of two-on-ones and three-on-twos that were preventable, and [there were] things we could have done better.”
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The Oilers (17-18-2) will host Chicago Friday.

-With files from 630 CHED’s Kerry McAthey

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