Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers scored a 5-3 win over the Boston Bruins Thursday night.
“It says a lot about our group that we don’t stop; we just continue to play our way and try and stick with it even if it’s not pretty,” Draisaitl said. “But, at the same time, I think there’s lots of things that we can improve on that we don’t have to score five goals every game to win a game.”
LISTEN BELOW: Leon Draisaitl
The teams traded goals 44 seconds apart before the game was six minutes old. David Pastrnak slid a puck under Mikko Koskinen, then Evan Bouchard snapped a shot right beneath the crossbar for his second of the season.
Brad Marchand put the Bruins back in front five minutes into the second. Again, the Oilers replied quickly. Zach Hyman skated in front from the corner and potted his eighth 24 seconds later.
“You definitely want to get back on the board and swing momentum back in your favour as soon as you can,” Hyman said. “Again, it’s just one of those games where you just keep pressing and the puck went in, in I guess a timely manner, so it was good.”
LISTEN BELOW: Zach Hyman
Brandon Carlo make it 3-2 Bruins with a slap shot from the point late in the session.
Carlo handed the goal right back to the Oilers 6:22 into the third. He whiffed on a pass in front of his own net, allowing Draisaitl to slam his 11th past Linus UIllmark. Just over three minutes later, Draisaitl knifed home a pass from Cody Ceci to give the Oilers their first lead of the night.
Pastrnak appeared to have the tying goal on his stick with eight minutes left. Koskinen was down on his back, but Pastrnak fired his shot off Koskinen’s skate. Ceci tallied his first of the season off another Boston giveaway with 2:19 to go.
“Ceci took a puck in the ear, he scored a goal, he had an assist, he did a lot tonight, so good for him,” head coach Dave Tippett said after the game.
LISTEN BELOW: Dave Tippett
Koskinen made 26 saves to improve to 8-1. The Bruins were 5-0 at home coming into the game.
Before the game, Tippett said goaltender Mike Smith had returned to Edmonton for treatment on his lower body injury. Smith has been out since Oct. 19.
The Oilers, 10-2, are back it in Buffalo on Friday. Catch the Face-off Show on 630 CHED at 3:30 p.m. The game starts at 5 p.m.