In the three-game sweep of the NHL from Sunday, we start in Edmonton where the new look Oilers took on a high flying New York Islanders club.
The Oilers got two goals from Matt Hendricks while newcomers Derek Roy, Matt Fraser, Rob Klinkhammer, and Anton Lander got on the scoresheet in a 5-2 win over the4 Isles.
“It’s a combination of the [new] coaches and a few new guys in the room,” Hendricks 
said. “It’s just a new sense of energy, the expectations have changed. We need to expect to win if we’re going to win. I don’t think we’ve hit it at that angle before, but we are right now.”
Edmonton earned the first regulation win for interim head coach Todd Nelson.
“It’s a relief,” Nelson said. “It was nice to get the goal support tonight and Ben [Scrivens] was very good in net and made some very timely saves. There were a lot of really solid efforts from a number of individuals.”
Ben Scrivens got the win for the Oilers making 31 saves on the night.
Jaroslav Halak took the loss on 18 saves.
“I thought we played pretty good and I thought we had some guys that were downright pretty bad,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “We gave them three gifts and an empty-netter. We were physical, we did a lot of good things, but at the end of the day it’s about execution and there are some guys that need to look in the mirror.”
In Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes rode the exploits of Anton Khudobin in net to a 2-1 shootout win over the Boston Bruins. Khudobin played for Boston from 2011 to 2013.
“It’s my first time playing against my former team,” said Khudobin. “It’s just (playing against) the same people I played with. But I have my team right now. I know what I have to do.”
The Canes have won two straight and Khudobin has won his last two starts, both shootouts.
“I was so pumped today,” said Khudobin, who has stopped 13 of 15 shootout attempts in his career. “It’s not because it was Boston, it’s just because I want to play more and more. I wanted to win so badly. I’m glad it happened. That’s why my emotions [took over] my mind.”
The win was a result of good defense and goaltending supporting the Canes’ meager offense.
“I’m used to it, but I’m not going to accept it,” said Carolina coach Bill Peters. “We’re going to start doing more things off offensive zone faceoffs; we’re going to get our power play ready. We’re going to put our offensive guys in more of a position to score. We need [Jeff’ Skinner, and [Nathan] Gerbe, and some of these guys to start showing up consistently on the score sheet.”
In Chicago, the Blackhawks played catch-up with the Dallas Stars throughout regulation. Four times the Stars took a lead and four times the Hawks responded.
Patrick Sharp broke the trend at 1:17 of extra time when he scored off a nifty pass from Duncan Keith to beat Kari Lehtonen for the 5-4 win.
“A couple of times this year we’ve been down late in the game and found a way to tie it up,” said Sharp, who scored his eighth goal. “It speaks to really, a total team effort. We have a number of guys who want to score that goal and a good team system that allows us to get those chances. Big goal [by Richards] to tie it up and we stole the two points.”
Erik Cole scored twice and kicked in an assist for the Stars in the loss but was on the ice for the game winner.
“We were also on the ice for two goals against, including the winner,” Cole said of his line (with Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky). “If you’re not keeping the puck out of your own net, then you’re not really doing yourself any favors. I think as a group we’re coming to the realization that we need to defend better. When we do that we get more chances offensively.”
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