Oilers finish road swing with a win in Boston
Strome scores game-winner against Bruins, while Hurricanes beat Predators in shootout
BOSTON — Skate, check. Score, check. Win, check. All the boxes were filled Sunday by the Edmonton Oilers, who were full measure for their purposeful 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins to end their five-game road trip with a 2-3 record.
Ryan Strome beat Tuukka Rask under the crossbar for the winner early in the third and Leon Draisaitl added an empty netter.
Adam Larsson and Patrick Maroon got the others for the Oilers while David Pastrnak and David Krejci scored on Cam Talbot, who was playing his 200th NHL game.
In the second, the Oilers outshot the Bruins 17-5 for a 27-11 advantage over 40 minutes, plus they had twice as many chances (13-6) in that time, but it was somehow tied 2-2. Such has been their struggles.
Maroon, who had a hat trick here last Jan. 5 on Rask and two more in an earlier 7-4 romp at Rogers Place, got his sixth goal in the last three games when he came off the bench on a line change to equalize the Bruins’ first-period score.
Then Adam Larsson’s screened shot hit Charlie McAvoy’s skate and skipped past Rask — it was originally credited to Milan Lucic — to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead. But 70 seconds later, former Oilers first-round draft pick Riley Nash helped tie it. Nash wheeled wide on Kris Russell and his feed found the hard-charging Krejci, who beat Mark Letestu and Yohann Auvitu to the net to lift it past Talbot.
The Oilers also had lots of jump in the opening period, after never getting it out of first gear in Buffalo Friday until late in the game with their goalie was pulled. But they allowed a Bruins power play goal, their first in six games since Brad Marchand went out with a concussion. Pastrnak worked a toe-drag on Oscar Klefbom and his 25-footer skipped off Talbot’s glove and into the net.
Meanwhile, in Raleigh, N.C., the Carolina Hurricanes got a goal from Teuvo Teravainen in the shootout and 35 saves from Scott Darling in a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators.
Scoring goals in regulation for the Hurricanes, who improved to 10-84, were Victor Rask, Josh Jooris and Justin Williams.
Mattias Ekholm, Viktor Arvidsson and Craig Smith had the goals for the Predators, who dropped to 14-6-3. Juuse Saros had 36 saves in a losing effort.