Late flurry propels Oilers past Avs
Oilers score five times in the third period to survive scare from last-place Colorado
DENVER The Colorado Avalanche continue to be the free spot on the NHL bingo card for one and all, but it took a while for the Edmonton Oilers’ eyes to light up.
The Avalanche, who came into the game with only four more points (43) than the Edmonton Oilers had wins (39), certainly weren’t dogs on National Puppy Day Thursday, but in the end, the Oilers rolled over them 7-4, unleashing a five-goal third-period bite back against the NHL’s worst team.
While Oilers centre Mark Letestu said they wouldn’t be looking at the standings, it looked like Edmonton certainly stole a peek after they lost a hard-fought game at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday as the Avs scored early and often against Cam Talbot. He got the start, his 67th, after being pulled after four goals on 18 shots against the Ducks and he got the hook again against the weak Avs, who’ve been blanked 12 times and scored just once in another 16, but had four goals in two periods on the NHL’s busiest goalie.
After Laurent Brossoit, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, came in for a second straight night, Zack Kassian and Jordan Eberle scored twice in the first five minutes of the third to tie it on shaky goalie Jeremy Smith, who came into this one 1-5 with an .890 save percentage and 3.44 goals-against average in his first taste of NHL work after being a journeyman minor-leaguer.
Then Drake Caggiula got the winner with 131 seconds to play with his first goal in 19 games when he took a Leon Draisaitl pass and sailed in alone to tuck it around Smith. Eberle and Draisaitl then got empty-netters against the Avs, who’ve been outscored 18-2 in the third period of the last four games.
“Lot of mixed emotions. I didn’t think we were the best team on the night. We were lucky to win the game. We didn’t skate well, maybe it was the back-to-back, maybe it was getting in late (three in the morning at the hotel). We weren’t very sharp on our skates with or without the puck, give them credit,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan.
It was 7-4 on the scoreboard, but the Avs twice led by two and blew it, looking very much like last year’s Oilers and the year before when they were hopelessly out of the playoff race and playing out the string.
Was this a 7-4 game? “That’s not a bad team over there. Guys like (Mikko) Rantanen can burn you. (Nate) MacKinnon, too. They can make you pay with their skill. We lost a lot of faceoffs, we were chasing the puck a lot. It just turned for us in the third. There was more energy, more battle. We got to pucks and scored,” said Letestu, who can feel for the Avs, who’ll be at Rogers Place on Saturday.
“Yeah, we were that team last year going into the third period with a lead and hoping you could hang on. I know that’s what it felt like for us. Did it seem like a 7-4 game? No, it’s like we stole two points and we’re not giving them back.”
He didn’t get any argument from Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, who’s seen this picture show over and over again.
“It looked like we were scared to lose and I don’t know ... we’ve done enough of that,” he said after his team, which was 9-9 when they met Oilers here Nov. 23 and is now 20-50-3. They’ve got 12 more losses than the next closest team, which tells you how far the Avs have tumbled.
Caggiula hadn’t scored since Jan. 26 in San Jose, so it was two long months.
“The pass was perfect, right on the tape with a lot of speed coming through the middle,” said Caggiula, who started on the fourth line, but moved onto the second with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl as McLellan jockeyed lines and firstliner Patrick Maroon found himself on the fourth after a rough first period.
“Had a mini breakaway there ... definitely a confidence booster to finally get one,” said Caggiula, who said they just woke up in the third after Rantanen had two goals off MacKinnon passes and J.T. Compher and Rene Bourque had the others on Talbot, who faced 15 shots in 40 minutes.
“We had a pretty tough talk between ourselves, shows our resiliency. After Kass scored, it was all uphill … no, I mean downhill for us.”
Kassian raced into the blue paint to tap in a puck that Smith couldn’t squeeze off a Benoit Pouliot shot, then Eberle, who had two goals in the 6-3 win by the Oilers here Nov. 23 when the Avs were 9-9 on the season, finished off a Connor McDavid feed to draw them even. Andrej Sekera scored in the last minute of the first and Milan Lucic the first minute of the second to tie it 2-2, then Rantanan and Bourque scored. Sekera led the charge with two other assists to tie his best offensive night.
“I think I had three points one night when I was playing in Buffalo, too,” he said.
Talbot had an off-night in Anaheim, but took a seat here more because McLellan wanted to change things up.
“I was trying to find anything to give our team a spark … Cam came out because our team was playing poorly,” said McLellan.