Lots to like as Oilers beat Red Wings for 7-1 start

EDMONTON

James Neal may be leading the NHL in scoring, but it’s Ethan Bear that impressed Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett on Friday night.

Neal and Bear both scored as the Oilers moved back into sole possession of first place overall in the NHL with a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.

Darnell Nurse had a pair of assists for the Oilers, who improved to 7-1-0. Bear scored for the second time in as many games, playing in just his 26th career NHL game.

“The goals are nice, but he is playing a lot of really hard minutes,” said Tippett. “He is giving us real quality minutes on both sides of the puck. We need him right now with (Adam) Larsson out. He has come in and really filled the void for us. He was a surprise in camp and now he is a good NHL player right now.”

Edmonton has also had some solid goaltending in its hot start to the season, including a 25-save performance from Mikko Koskinen on Friday. He improved his record to 4-0.

“The main thing for myself is I put everything out there this summer and that builds confidence,” said Koskinen, who added that already having last season under his belt has better prepared him for this year. “It really helps a lot. I started from zero. It really helped a lot. I practised all summer in a small rink and I was more ready this year.”

Mike Green replied for the Red Wings (3-5-0), who have lost four games in a row. Jonathan Bernier stopped 35 shots in net for Detroit.

“I thought we played pretty good today, just some chances didn’t go in, we hit the crossbar at the end,” said Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi. “We had a good third and we tried our hardest. We dug in, got it deep and played simple in the third, we just didn’t get rewarded.”

Neal scored eight minutes into the second period when a long rebound came out to him and he put it into the net for his league-leading ninth goal of the season.

With the goal in just Edmonton’s eighth game, Neal has already surpassed the seven he had in all of last season with the Calgary Flames.

Bear scored on a long point shot four minutes later for a 2-0 Oilers lead. Leon Draisaitl picked up an assist, giving him at least a point in every game thus far this season for Edmonton.

The Red Wings had some heavy pressure late in the game but couldn’t get the equalizer in the scoreless third period, one which saw Connor McDavid hit a post on an empty-net attempt in the final minute to go scoreless on the night.

AVALANCHE 5, PANTHERS 4, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. — Nathan MacKinnon scored 3:03 into overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche their sixth victory in seven games this season, this one over the Florida Panthers.

Playing after sustaining a leg injury Wednesday night in an overtime loss to Pittsburgh, MacKinnon beat Sergei Bobrovsky to the glove side.

Andre Burakovsky scored twice, Joonas Donskoi had a goal and two assists, Matt Nieto also scored and Philipp Grubauer stopped 40 shots for Colorado. Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice for Florida, Brett Connolly and Frank Vatrano added goals and Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves.

BLACKHAWKS 3, BLUE JACKETS 2, OT

CHICAGO — Jonathan Toews scored 46 seconds into overtime, Robin Lehner made 37 saves and Chicago beat Columbus.

Toews drove to the net and knocked a rebound of Patrick Kane’s shot from the right circle past Elvis Merzlikins to give Chicago its second straight win. It was Toews’ first goal of the season.

Alex DeBrincat tied it at 2 with a power-play goal midway through the third period. Drake Caggiula also scored for Chicago, and Kane had with two assists. Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his third goal in four games and Markus Nutivaara connected early in the third for the Blue Jackets.

CAPITALS 5, RANGERS 2 WASHINGTON — John Carlson added three assists to his historic start, T.J. Oshie scored two power-play goals and Washington beat New York. PENGUINS 4, STARS 2 PITTSBURGH — Kris Letang scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and added an empty-netter to help Pittsburgh beat Dallas for its fifth straight victory.

Jared McCann and Patric Hornqvist also scored for Pittsburgh and Matt Murray made 22 saves.

Roope Hintz and John Klingberg scored for Dallas.