Neal Oilers down Detroit

In Edmonton, James Neal leads the NHL in scoring with nine, count em, nine goals.

On Friday night, Neal opened the scoring for the Oilers in a 2-1 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings.

“I like the way we battled all night,” Neal said. “It was one of our best games, and it was nice to get another win. I feel good. I’m trying to get to the net as much as I can. Our line (with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Alex Chiasson) was really good tonight. I thought we were getting to pucks, we were making plays, and we were finding each other. It was a solid game from us, and it was nice to find the back of the net again.”

Ethan Bear also scored for Edmonton who improved to 7-1-0.

Mikko Koskinen made 25 saves to get the win.

“We competed harder defensively tonight, even if we didn’t capitalize on chances like we did the other night (6-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday),” Edmonton coach Dave Tippet said. “It was a hard-fought 2-1 game. They are a desperate team. They had lost three in a row coming in. I thought we checked well and had some good opportunities that we missed on. For the most part, we competed hard.”

Mike Green scored the Wings’ lone goal.

“In the end, we haven’t scored enough, that’s for sure,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “Here’s what I liked though: We got down 2-0, we talked about not melting when we were down 2-0, we kept digging, and we found way to make 2-1. And then I thought we had the better of the chances in the third period. We had a couple of shifts where we got stuck in our end a little bit, but I thought, overall, we had the better of the chances, and we gave ourselves a chance to win the hockey game.”

[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Oilers highlights]

Jonathan Bernier made 35 saves in the loss.

“We know when we play our game — and we didn’t play our best tonight — but when we play our game, we’re up there with the hottest team in the League,” Dylan Larkin said. “We forechecked hard, we moved our feet, and we got pucks out of our zone quickly. When we do that, we’re a good team. We need to shore up the other part and score goals, and we had some chances there late and it’s up to the forwards then.”