In Edmonton, David Pastrnak punched in his 43rd goal of the season at 1:14 of extra time to give the visiting Boston Bruins a 2-1 win over the Oilers on Wednesday night.
“Torey [Krug] made a great defensive play on a 2-on-1, and then [David] Krejci won a battle and I was gone,” Pastrnak said. “He sent it over and I went on a breakaway and the goalie tried to poke check so I tried to go five-hole.”
David Pastrnak’s OT goal won it for the Bruins – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Boston is 10-1-0 in the last 11.
“Typically when we’re at our best, it’s a low-scoring game and we force the other team to stay in the game,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I give Edmonton a lot of credit, they’ve done that lately, the know they’re light in their lineup, so good for the American [Hockey] League guys to come up and do that job.”
Tuukka Rask made 28 saves for the victory.
Sam Ganger got the game even at 1-1 for the Oilers when he scored in the third period.
“It’s a valuable point for us, but I think the thing we want to learn from that game is to have a little swagger early on, making plays and having confidence with it in the first period would have set us up a little better,” Gagner said. “We clawed our way to a point, and there is a lot to like about the last two periods and the way we played against a really good team. We’ll take the point and keep pushing forward.”
Patrice Bergeron scored midway through the first period to stake the Bruins to a 1-0 lead.
“Anytime you’re missing some key players and there are guys that are called up, it’s a big opportunity for them and you know they’re going to play a simple game and they’re going to play a hard game and that’s what we got tonight,” Bergeron said. “We played them in Boston (a 4-1 loss Jan. 4) it was the same kind of hockey, and it was no surprise they played well, and ultimately we got the extra point.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Bruins highlights]
Mike Smith made 28 saves in the loss.
“I thought our whole group wasn’t very good in the first period, but at the start of the second period we started to play with some confidence,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “Our group started to push a little bit. They started to play a little quicker and make a few passes on the tape. It is amazing how you can start playing and look a little quicker. As a group we started poor, but we battled hard and got better as the game went on.”
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