Big start for Cornet
Edmonton call-up tallies first NHL point on second shift as Oilers drop Avalanche
While Edmonton Oilers forward Jordan Eberle was rubbing shoulders with the game’s elite at last weekend’s NHL all-star game, Philippe Cornet was sitting in front of the television, watching his old camp linemate.
Never did he imagine the scene that would unfold on Tuesday.
Cornet, called up from the Oklahoma City Barons, flew into Edmonton just in time to slide onto a line with Eberle and Sam Gagner. On his second shift, in his first NHL game, he picked up an assist.
Eberle’s game opening goal was the first of three the Oilers would score in a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Rexall Place.
“The first point was more than I was expecting today — especially on my second shift,” Cornet said. “I just didn’t want to be too impressed by everything.
“I was watching Ebs on TV then I found myself playing with him in the NHL. It was unreal.”
The Oilers, who have now picked up points in their last three games, are in such a deep hole that they have don’t even want to do the math. In short, they have 32 games to play and are 19-26-5. The Avs, at 26-24-2, remain one point back of eighth place in the Western Conference.
But what the Oilers lack in points, they make up for in resolve. They got a 31-save outing from goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who preserved the win when he denied Kyle Quincy with a glove save late in the third.
They got a power-play goal from Eric Belanger whose only other goal of the season was scored on Dec. 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes — and that one went in off his skate not his stick. Belanger, the faceoff specialist with the ice-cold scoring hands, beat goaltender Semyon Varlamov with a power-play wrister to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Five minutes into the contest, Eberle, with his second effort, registered his 19th goal of the season.
The Avs pushed back early in the second and cut the lead in half when Peter Mueller, unchallenged by defenceman Corey Potter, beat Dubynk. Colorado finished with a 27-12 shot advantage in the final 40 minutes.
“They came at us. They got their goal and we tightened up,” said head coach Tom Renney. “They attacked us, but Dubnyk was good.”
Early in the third, Ales Hemsky, who like Belanger has struggled to find his offensive game this year but looked better against the Avs, drove up the right wing and fired a shot that ended up on the stick of Taylor Hall. Hall wasted no time flicking in the rebound.
At 10:14 of the third, Gabriel Landeskog jumped on a puck the Oilers could not clear and put away his 11th of the season.
“For sure I was nervous. Especially on my first shift. I think I stayed out there for 25 seconds. I just wanted to get the first one out of the way,” said Cornet, who will likely get another look on Thursday when the Oilers host the Chicago Blackhawks. “The passes here are tape to tape, players are always in the right spot, for sure it’s faster and the guys are stronger.
“You don’t have a lot of room, a lot of time to make plays.”
Cornet, a 20-goal scorer for the Barons, was told before the AHL all-star game in Atlantic City, N.J., that he’d been called up by the Oilers. The 21-year-old is in his second pro season.
“Obviously, I wasn’t thinking about the all-star game anymore … I was pretty anxious to get here. At the start of the year, I had a really good start, but I wasn’t among the early call-ups. It kind of played in my head a bit, but after that I didn’t really think about it. I just wanted to be consistent, not give them any choice but to call me up.”
He and Eberle, both 2008 draft picks, played together at the 2010-11 camp. Eberle has been on a much different track than Cornet, who has just started to turn heads this season.
“He’s so confident out there. He plays with a lot of poise … and when he goes to take a shot, it’s on net,” said Cornet. “When you go out and play with guys like that it makes your game a lot easier.”