The Edmonton Oilers ended their three-game road trip with a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights Saturday night.
The Oilers were outplayed in the first ten minutes, but Mikko Koskinen made several big saves to keep the Golden Knights off the board.
“He made some big saves in his first period,” head coach Dave Tippett said after the game. “Second period I thought we settled in; we played a lot better in the second period. And then they really pushed hard in the third and he gave us enough saves to give us the win, so it was a big effort by him.”
LISTEN BELOW: Dave Tippett
With just over two minutes to go in the period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins elected to shoot on a two-on-one. He placed his wrist shot right inside the post for his second of the season. Zach Hyman held off the back-checking Mark Stone to score on a breakaway to make it 2-0 Oilers with just 15.1 seconds left in the first.
Koskinen made more big saves in the second, then Jesse Puljujarvi went five-hole on a breakaway to make it 3-0. Chandler Stephenson scored on a backhand to put Vegas on the board.
Jonathan Marchessault swatted at a loose puck during a goal mouth scramble four minutes into the third. It glanced off Reilly Smith on the way past Koskinen to pull the Golden Knights within a goal. Vegas pulled Robin Lehner for an extra attacker with 2:32 left but couldn’t muster a good scoring chance.
Kris Russell blocked six shots to surpass Brent Seabrook as the NHL’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 2,003.
“It’s no surprise,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said when asked about Russell’s accomplishment. “He puts himself in front of any puck. It doesn’t matter how hard it is or who’s shooting it; he’s laying out and putting his body on the line every night.”
LISTEN BELOW: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Koskinen made 36 saves to improve to 11-2.
“We knew that they (were) going to come hard and we need to survive the first ten minutes, and that’s exactly what happened,” Koskinen said. “And then we got our legs — a little bit — going and ended up leading 2-0 after the first period.”
LISTEN BELOW: Mikko Koskinen
Neither Leon Draisaitl nor Connor McDavid registered a point.
The Oilers, 15-5, will host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.