In Newark, the New Jersey Devils held a 3-2 lead over the visiting Edmonton Oilers headed to the third period on Thursday night.
Then the house fell in on the,
In a span of 69 seconds, the Oilers hit for three straight goals to grab a 5-3 lead, en route to a 6-3 win.
The Oilers moved to 14-15-1, snapping a three-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 23 saves in the win.
Connor McDavid started the third period outburst with at 1:40 of the frame.
“We felt there were a lot of pucks laying around the net and sometimes you just need a bounce,” McDavid said. “… We got one early, and then [Draisaitl] makes a special play that not a lot of guys can make, and Erne chips in with another big one a couple of seconds later. It was a big stretch of the game that turned it in our favor.”
Leon Draisaitlhit at 2:22 for a 4-3 lead after McDavid had tied, 3-3.
Adam Erne scored off an odd man rush on the right side at 2:49 for the 5-3 advantage.
“I’ve liked a lot of aspects of our game, felt like we’ve had lots of chances, but we’ve just been finding ways to lose games,” McDavid said. “Tonight we obviously were in a tough spot heading into the third period, but there was great resilience and the boys stuck with it.”
The Oilers had four goals in the period, with Ryan McLeod scoring midway through the third for the 6-3 final.
“I don’t think much changed in the third,” McDavid said. “I feel like we had lots of loose pucks around the net, lots of little plays that could have gone in and, all of a sudden, in the third they just started going in. It’s a funny game that way. You stay with it long enough, you get rewarded, and I thought we did that.”
New Jersey dropped to 16-13-2 off their third straight loss.
“We got our [butts] beat,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “We didn’t win enough battles, we didn’t beat enough people to the net and then when we had opportunities to shoot, we didn’t want to shoot. You look at three of their goals … the puck is going to be ours so we’re heading on the offense, and we turn it over. It’s commitment to being in shot lanes … free shots from the point where we’re not blocking shots.”
Edmonton took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from McLeod with just 24 seconds of game fresh ice used for a 1-0 lead, and a strike from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at 5:24 for a 2-0 advantage.
“There was a lot of excitement because tonight the hard work we’ve been putting in paid off,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “That happens when guys score. It’s easier to play hockey after you score a couple of goals.”
New Jersey got one back off a marker from Dawson Mercer at 13:14 of the opening stanza for a 2-1 deficit headed to the middle frame.
“The message (to the team) is buckle up, we have to get out of it together,” New Jersey’s Nico Hischier said. “We’re all frustrated. But that’s when teams get together and you’ve just got to dig deeper.”
In the middle frame, New Jersey showed life with a pair of goals to take a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Jonas Siegenthaler knotted the game, 2-2, at 1:39 of the middle frame, it was his fist of the campaign.
“I think it’s a mindset,” Hischier said. “We’ve got to start having a different mindset, especially when we play with the lead. It has cost us games.”
New Jersey took the lead on a strike by Timo Meier at 16:26.
Akira Schmid got the start for New Jersey, he surre4ndered two goals on just six shots before getting the hook early in the first period.
Vitek Vanecek made 28 saves in the loss.
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