Oilers string together a streak at last

NEWARK, N.J. Be still your beating hearts, finally a winning streak.

After going 14 games without registering consecutive wins, the Edmonton Oilers beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in overtime Thursday night.

Connor McDavid wheeled around forward Brian Gibbons in the dying stages and fed Leon Draisaitl for the game-winner on Cory Schneider.

The Oilers got earlier goals from Milan Lucic and Anton Slepyshev, while Brian Boyle and Drew Stafford scored on Oilers goalie Cam Talbot.

Lucic tied it 2-2 just over three minutes into the third with a 25-footer that looked to be a gimme for Schneider, but it slipped through the goalie’s pads as he fell to his knees. It was Lucic’s third goal and second against the Devils in the last week.

Stafford, who scores against the Oilers for fun, got his 10th in 19 career games against Edmonton when he found a late second-period seam after Adam Larsson got caught along the wall with Adam Henrique. Stafford slipped past Oilers centre Mark Letestu on the late backcheck and deked Talbot for the 2-1 advantage going to the third period.

The Oilers tied it 1-1 on a short-side wrister by Slepyshev, his first regular-season goal since March 16. The winger was only 50-50 to play and came down to the Prudential Center to skate by himself in the morning to test out his lower-body injury that kept him out of the last two games, while the team stayed at its New York hotel.

Slepyshev may have reinjured himself after scoring because he didn’t play in the third period.

Boyle, diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia before training camp, got his first of the season in his fifth game. His 25-footer off the right wing hit Talbot in the chest and before the goalie could put his mitt on the loose puck, Gibbons raced in, bumped him and Boyle lift the rebound home.

Boyle admitted he was teary-eyed when the puck went in.

“I’ve never cried before after a goal, but it was a great feeling,” he said during a first-intermission interview.