Draisaitl lifts Oilers to OT victory
Leon Draisaitl’s goal with 16.3 seconds left in overtime lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
The Oilers (6-8-1) have now won consecutive games for the first time all season. Anton Slepyshev and Milan Lucic also scored for Edmonton, and Cam Talbot made 32 saves.
The Devils have lost four straight to fall to 9-4-2.
Cory Schneider made 29 saves for New Jersey. Brian Boyle and Drew Stafford scored for the Devils.
Following the franchise’s first playoff appearance since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in the 2005-06 season, Edmonton was a trendy pick to win the Western Conference during the preseason.
However, the Oilers opened the season with a 3-6-1 record in October, and were 2-2-0 in November. Entering the game, Edmonton’s 11 points were second worst in the Western Conference, ahead of only Arizona.
Edmonton never led in until Draisaitl’s game-winner.
Boyle opened the scoring as he jammed a loose puck through Talbot, his one-time teammate with the New York Rangers, to give the Devils a 10 lead just 5:33 in.
The goal was Boyle’s first of the season. Boyle had been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid/Myelogenous Leukemia during training camp, and he had missed all of the preseason and New Jersey’s first 10 games of the regular season while receiving treatment.
New Jersey had an opportunity to tack onto its lead before the end of the period, as the Devils were granted a power play due to Oscar Klefbom tripped first overall pick Nico Hischier at 17:46. But Stefan Noesen’s shot from the top of the crease sailed wide, and the Devils went into intermission with the 1-0 advantage.
Noesen’s missed shot came back to haunt New Jersey when Slepyshev tied the game at 6:50 of the second with his first of the season.
Still, it was the Devils who went into the second intermission with a 2-1 lead, on Stafford’s fifth of the year at 18:25.
Flames 6, Red Wings 3
CALGARY — Jaromir Jagr had his first goal as a Flame and added an assist to lead Calgary over Detroit.
After Jagr's rebound resulted in Mark Jankowski’s first NHL goal to open the scoring 9:15 into the first period, the future hall-of-gamer showed the type of finish around the net that has got him 766 career goals, second only to Wayne Gretzky.
Breaking up ice on a two-onone with Johnny Gaudreau, Jagr got himself open, took a cross-ice pass from Gaudreau and after patiently waiting Petr Mrazek to go down, neatly snapped a shot past the Red Wings goaltender.
Gaudreau with a pair, including an empty netter, Micheal Ferland and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for Calgary (9-7-0).
Martin Frk, Frans Nielsen and Anthony Mantha replied for Detroit (8-8-1).
Wild 3, Canadiens 0
MONTREAL — Jason Zucker scored three goals and Devan Dubnyk made 41 saves for the shutout as the Minnesota Wild downed the Canadiens 3-0 to end a three-game losing run.
The Canadiens had two goals called back after video review.
Flyers 3, Blackhawks 1
PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek each had a goal and two assists to lead Philadelphia over Chicago.
Brian Elliott made 38 saves and Sean Couturier also scored for the Flyers, who avenged last Wednesday’s 3-0 loss at Chicago while beating the Blackhawks for the 14th straight time in Philadelphia during the regular season.
Connor Murphy scored for the Blackhawks.