Brodziak lifts Oilers over Wings
Centre gets his first goals for Edmonton since returning after nine-year absence
DETROIT — Maybe it was the new Movember moustache or maybe he was just due, like almost 10 years due, but fourth-line centre Kyle Brodziak celebrated his first two Oiler goals in his second go-round with Edmonton on Saturday night.
Brodziak scored on a shot past Jonathan Bernier’s glove in the second period and lifted one over the goalie in the third for the 4-3 win over the Red Wings in a game that was much closer than it should have been. The Oilers had nearly a 2-to-1 shot advantage (42-26) after Drake Caggiula beat Bernier 12 seconds into the game, but the Wings got a goal from Tyler Bertuzzi with 86 seconds left and Bernier pulled to make it interesting.
Alex Chiasson, who is scoring on every second shot in his eight Oiler games, had the other one for Edmonton, which went with Mikko Koskinen in net for the second straight game after his brilliant 4-0 blanking of Chicago on Thursday night.
The Oilers, who also got two primary assists from Connor McDavid, are now 8-4-1 after losing their first two games on the road to New Jersey and Boston.
Koskinen made one stunning stop on Martin Frk in the second period, but had one by Danny DeKeyser bounce in off his right leg and another by Jacob de la Rose under his arm as he won his third straight.
RAREFIED AIR
Caggiula scored on the Oilers’ first shot 12 seconds in, which has only been beaten once before. No surprise — Wayne Gretzky, eight seconds after the first faceoff at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 14, 1983. Caggiula beat Bernier under the bar after McDavid stole the puck behind the net from the league’s second-fastest skater, Dylan Larkin. Mark Messier scored in 14 seconds one night, too.
FLASHING THE LEATHER
Koskinen threw out his left mitt to rob Marty “Can I buy a vowel please?” Frk, as Carolina’s TV play-by-play man John Forslund calls him, with the Oilers leading 2-1 in the second. At the stoppage, Frk skated by and gave Koskinen a stick tap on the goalie’s backside, saluting him for the highlight stop.
FEAST OR FAMINE
Neither Detroit goal was a masterpiece. Journeyman forward de la Rose, whose career has never bloomed with nine career goals in 126 games, squeezed one past Koskinen in the first period and then, late in the second, DeKeyser missed the cage by 10 feet and the puck pinballed off the end boards and off the right appendage of Koskinen and in to make it 3-2 for Oilers.
SOME DROUGHTS LONGER
It was only 9 ½ years between Oilers goals for Brodziak. He beat Bernier with a 30-footer that knuckled past Bernier’s glove, his first since March 27, 2009 in Anaheim. Wings rookie D Dennis Cholowski, who turned it over here, had just turned 11 years old. Brodziak scored 26 Oilers goals before going to Minnesota, then St. Louis, before his return to the Oilers.
HOTTEST STICK IN HOCKEY
On a power play early in the second, Chiasson buried his sixth on his first 12 shots this season after a sweet feed from McDavid. Probably not sustainable, a 50 per cent shooting percentage, but man, Chiasson is on a roll. This was his first on the road after scoring five at Rogers Place
THIS ’N’ THAT
McDavid has points in all but the 3-0 shutout loss to Nashville and is tied with Colorado’s Nate MacKinnon for second in league scoring with 21 points ... Seventy years ago, on Nov. 3, 1948, Gordie Howe played in his first NHL all-star game and got into a scrap with Gus Mortson, the only fight in all-star history … The Oilers want to give Ty Rattie another full practice Sunday before deciding if he’s ready to play.