Rattie adds a hattie
EDMONTON Right wing was considered a weakness for the Edmonton Oilers heading into this season, but the trio of Ty Rattie, Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto seem to be defying that prediction in pre-season play.
Rattie had a hat trick and Cam Talbot recorded a shutout as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 6-0 on Tuesday in preseason play. With the three-goal performance, Rattie upped his league-leading point total to 10 in three games played.
Puljujarvi also scored a pair of goals to give him four in the pre-season, and Oscar Klefbom added another for the Oilers who improved to 4-1 in exhibition action. Yamamoto had an assist in the contest to give him four goals and seven points.
“They’ve taken advantage of the position they’ve been put in and they all look confident ... We’ve turned what we considered a weakness into a strength,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan.
Much has been made of Rattie’s play with Connor McDavid on the top line to this point, but the Oilers captain said he has also been quite impressed with Puljujarvi.
“He’s just got another step. He must have had a good summer,” McDavid said. “He’s got skill. The goal he scored on the power play, I zipped it in there on his backhand and sometimes that’s a tough play when you’re going full speed. He handled it perfectly and got off an amazing shot.”
Talbot had 35 saves to blank Vancouver.
PANTHERS 3, LIGHTNING 2
At Tampa Bay, Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist in the third period and the Florida Panthers rallied to beat the host Lightning.
Trailing 2-0 at the start of the third, Dadonov scored 2:16 in. Aaron Ekblad added a shorthanded goal at 7:03 to tie the score, and Aleksander Barkov scored the game-winner just over five minutes later. James Reimer made 27 saves for Florida. J.T. Miller led the Lightning with two points. Adam Erne and Alex Killorn scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 28 shots.
BLUE JACKETS 4, SABRES 2
In Clinton, New York, Jones Korpisalo made 31 saves to lead the Blue Jackets.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists for Columbus. Anthony Duclair added a goal and an assist. Adam Clendening and Kevin Stenlund also scored.
Casey Nelson and Sam Reinhart scored for Buffalo, which received a 22-save effort from Scott Wedgewood.
The game was part of the NHL’s the Kraft Hockeyville venture, in which one American and one Canadian municipality is granted an NHL preseason game, along with money earmarked for rink improvements.
Lucan, Ontario, was named the Canadian winner of the undertaking, and hosted the Maple Leafs-Senators preseason game on Sept. 18. Toronto won that game 4-1.
HURRICANES 4, PREDATORS 1
In Nashville, Scott Darling made 28 saves for the Hurricanes.
Warren Foegele had a goal and an assist, and Brett Pesce, Brock McGinn and Trevor van Riemsdyk also scored for the Hurricanes.
Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville. Pekka Rinne finished with 37 saves.
CAPITALS 4, BLUES 0
In St. Louis, Pheonix Copley made 42 saves and recorded the shutout for Washington.
Chandler Stephenson, Madison Bowey, Shane Gersich and Nathan Walker scored for the Capitals.
RED WINGS 8, BLACKHAWKS 6
In Chicago, Andreas Athanasiou had two goals and two assists as Detroit prevailed in a highscoring game.
FLAMES 7, SHARKS 5
In Calgary, Johnny Gaudreau scored two goals and the Flames rallied from an early three-goal deficit for the win.
Sam Bennett, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Matthew Phillips and Austin Czarnik scored for the Flames.
San Jose got goals from Barclay Goodrow, Rourke Chartier, Lukas Radil, Maxim Letunov and Alexander Chmelevski.