In Edmonton, the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets tied their match with the Oilers, 2-2, in the third period on a goal from Kirill Marchenko.
That forced an extra session, and Kent Johnson scored midway through the extra period for a 3-2 win to the Blue Jackets.
“It’s one of the best feelings to get an OT winner, that was a huge win for us,” Johnson said. “These are the type of games you want to play in; they’re really fun and have great energy. You have to manage the game to get the win. I think we’ve been pretty good in OT all year, but I think we’re getting more comfortable in these tight games.”
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak by the Oilers.
Columbus moved to 15-30-3.
“I thought in the third, we had some good shifts and [Marchenko] does a heck of a job pulling it from below the goal line and getting to the other side of the net and jamming away there,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “Then you can feel there was energy in our group. It was a good period, a solid period.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves in the Columbus win, he made a spectacular save on Leon Draisaitl in the middle frame to keep the Oilers from making a run.
“It was just instincts,” Korpisalo said. “I think it was Hyman who got the puck in front of the net and I thought he was going to shoot there, it’s a good shooting spot, but he still made that one extra pass and I was just trying to get something in front of it.”
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike from Boone Jenner .
“In the first period, we turned the puck over 11 times,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought it got better as the game went on, we were a little more simple through the neutral zone. Their team competed hard. It wasn’t a perfect night for us in any way at all. I saw a lot of bobbled pucks, stick-to-skate passing; not as crisp as we had been.
“But we had a 2-1 lead going into the third period against a team that was competing very hard against us. In the end, we made a mistake, got rolled out of a corner and beat to the net and ended up with only one point instead of two.”
The Oilers dropped to 27-18-4.
“It’s a bit frustrating, I think we had enough looks and chances to probably win the game,” Edmonton defenseman Tyson Barrie said. “It certainly wasn’t our best game, but we gave ourselves a chance. It was disappointing to let them come back, and then OT is kind of anyone’s game.”
Derek Ryan scored in the second for the Oilers to knot the game at 1-1.
“It’s always disappointing when you don’t get two points, I think we let one slip away there,” Ryan said. “Credit to them; they played a good game and took advantage of their opportunities. There are no easy games in the NHL, every game is going to be hard. That being said, I don’t think we played our best tonight, I think we maybe overcomplicated things a little bit.”
Zach Hyman scored in the second period to give the Oilers a 2-1 advantage headed to the third.
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Stuart Skinner made 24 saves in the Edmonton loss.
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