Conor Garland scored twice as the Arizona Coyotes downed the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 Saturday night at Rogers Place.
Connor McDavid opened the scoring with a spectacular goal 6:46 into the game. Ty Rattie flipped the puck ahead to McDavid, who worked it away from two Coyotes and went in alone on Darcy Kuemper. McDavid slid home his 27th goal of the year.
LISTEN BELOW: Connor McDavid
“They controlled parts of the game that we couldn’t get a handle on,” Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They kept us to the outside. They defended their zone hard and well and with numbers.”
Jordan Oesterle tied it with a point shot 1:16 into the second. The Oilers challenged for offside on the zone entry, but the goal stood and the Oilers were hit with a penalty for delay of game. With eight seconds left in the advantage, Oesterle’s long shot went in off Garland’s face. Garland was injured on the play.
The Oilers pulled even with three minutes to go in the frame. Kris Russell came in from the point and beat Kuemper for his second of the season.
“I needed to get that one for the team. I let them down on the first one,” Russell said.
Garland was back in the game and scored another power play 1:54 into the third. After a point shot flew over the next, Garland nudged the rebound off the back glass behind Cam Talbot. The Oilers pulled Talbot with 90 seconds left but couldn’t muster a good scoring chance.
The Oilers were outshot 29-25 and have been outshot 14 of their last 15 games.
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“We’ve got to get more people to be more consistent in their approach,” Hitchcock said. “We had some bad breaks, but overall they had more people that won more races and more puck battles than we did.”
LISTEN BELOW: Ken Hitchcock
The Oilers, 21-21-3, will host Buffalo on Monday.
–with files from Brenden Escott
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