The St. Louis Blues came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers went on a power play in the first minute of the game when St. Louis was penalized for starting the wrong lineup.
Edmonton forward Zach Hyman made St. Louis pay, shovelling a backhand under Blues netminder Jordan Binnington.
“Those are honest mistakes — they happen,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. “But if you’re alert on the bench and you pay attention to the numbers that were circled compared to who starts the game, that stuff happens.
“That power play allowed us to get up and running.”
The Blues came back when Darnell Nurse was stripped of the puck behind the Oilers net. St. Louis forward Jordan Kyrou would fire a wrister past Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner to make it 1-1.
“It’s hockey — he’s going to play over 1,000 games (and) he’s going to have a couple (of giveaways) that he’d like back,” Oilers defenceman Tyson Barrie said.
“I’ve had a million of those myself. It’s part of the game and you move on.”
After the Blues were penalized for too many men, the Oilers’ potent power play struck again. Connor McDavid darted in down the right side, cut into the middle and blistered a shot past Binnington’s blocker for his 27th.
“I think there was a lot to like about our game today. We made some human errors in moments and were made to pay for those errors because they’re a good team,” Woodcroft said.
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“In the end, it’s a 60-minute game — it’s not a 59-minute-and-30-second game. We found only one point because we made a couple critical errors.”
The Blues outshot the Oilers 12-5 in the period, with Skinner making several excellent saves.
Oilers winger Kailer Yamamoto deflected Barrie’s shot for his 100th career point halfway through the third.
Robert Thomas brought the Blues back within one only 49 seconds later.
Binnington kept the Blues alive with great saves off Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with seven minutes to go.
The Oilers went on the power play with just over a minute left, but Blues sniper Vladimir Tarasenko would tie it with a shorthanded goal with Binnington on the bench with 19.1 seconds on the clock.
“We had the lead with a power play with 18 seconds left in the game,” Nurse said post-game after turning the puck over that led to the tying goal. “That’s just unacceptable on my part. I let my teammates down tonight.”
“I think we win and lose as a team, and today we lost,” Woodcroft said after the game.
The power play carried over into overtime for the Oilers, but they couldn’t cash in. They briefly celebrated a win when Leon Draisaitl jammed a puck past Binnington, but the league reviewed the play and ruled McDavid offside on the zone entry.
“The league’s got to clarify some of these rules,” McDavid lamented after the game. “Ever since I was a kid, I thought if you have possession of the puck, it’s onside.
“Either way I think players just want some clarity on some of these rules. We’ve been burned.”
“You’re talking about Connor McDavid — if he feels like he has control of the puck, you can pretty much guarantee he had control of the puck,” Barrie said after the game.
Kyrou scored the only goal in the shootout.
The Oilers (17-13-1) will host the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Saturday. You can listen to live coverage of the game on 630 CHED, beginning with The Faceoff Show at 12:30 p.m. The actual game starts at 2 p.m.
–With files from Brenden Escott, 630 CHED
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