In Edmonton, the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third period on Saturday, to tie the Oilers, 1-1, and force extra time and skills competition.
MacKinnon also had the only strike in the skills portion of the evening’s affairs in a 2-1 win for the Avalanche.
Darcy Kuemper made 49 saves in the Avs win.
“I thought the [penalty] killers did a great job,” Kuemper said. “It was a tough situation going up against those four guys in overtime on the kill. But the killers did a great job and allowed me to be aggressive and see the shots. I was just trying to play the same way and not change anything.”
Kuemper stopped 11 shots in the extra session including time on a power play for the Oilers.
“I thought he was great, especially on the power play at the end of the game, it’s a big moment, that and the shootout,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought he was outstanding right from the start. He had a great start to the game, and he carried that through the night. He was tough to beat. I thought their guy was pretty good too.”
Warren Foegele as the lone goal scorer for the Oilers.
“I thought we played a good game, but obviously, you never like a loss,” the Oilers’ Connor McDavid said. “I thought we should have found a way to get two [points] and only found a way to get one. It’s always disappointing that way, but there’s a lot of things to like in that one.”
Edmonton dropped to 42-25-6.
“I thought it was a very exciting game for our fans,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “As a coach standing behind our players, I saw everybody lay it on the line and compete at a very high level. We got an important point out of that game, though obviously, we wanted two.
“We lost the skills competition in the shootout. We had chances to win that game and I am proud of the effort that our players put forth. It was a playoff-like feel to that game.”
Kuem,per stopped all three skaters in the skills competition.
“I felt good, and the team played really well in front of me,” Koskinen said. “That makes my job pretty easy, and it was like a playoff kind of game. There weren’t too many quality chances and I really like how we played.”
Mikko Koskinen made 33 saves in the Oilers loss.
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