In Edmonton, the Oilers secured their seventh straight win on Sunday night in a 4-1 cruise past the New Jersey Devils.
Calvin Pickard made 26 saves in the win.
“You can’t put too much pressure on yourself when you don’t play very often, but I felt good in practice and I wanted to keep it going,” said Pickard, who made his first start in eight games. “I thought we played a great game all the way through, very defensive, really good special teams and deserved the win.
“I know I can play in this league. I know I haven’t had a ton of opportunities, but this is a good game for me to build off of and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.”
The e Oilers got to .500, 12-12-1, off the win
Connor McDavid stretched his point streak to nine games with a goal and assist.
The Oilers scored three straight goals in the game to take a 3-0 lead in the third period.
Edmonton’s Derek Ryan scored with 1:24 left in the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead.
Evan Bouchard hit off the power play at 14:20 of the middle frame for a 2-0 advantage.
“Bouch is really hot right now, he’s playing so well for us,” the Oilers’ Vincent Desharnais said . “Even defensively he’s playing really well. So, it’s really positive, it’s fun, it’s so much more fun to come in every day and put in the work and be consistent with it when you win like that.”
McDavid potted his marker in the game at 4:23 of the third to take a 3-0 lead
New Jersey dropped to 14-11-1
Jesper Bratt was the lone striker for New Jersey, his third period goal cut into the Oilers’ three-goal string, to trim the New Jersey deficit to 3-1.
“We did some good things and we’re playing against an offensively skilled team with good speed, and I thought we were shutting it down pretty good for the most part,” said Bratt. “We play a lot of back-to-backs in this league, they probably have a lot of back-to-backs too.
“Obviously we played a tough game yesterday and it was a tough game today, but I don’t think it was that big of a difference. “
Evander Kane hit an empty net at 16:52 for the 4-1 final count.
Akira Schmid made 26 saves in the loss.
“I think the schedule got us a little bit, we didn’t have quite the energy,” said Devils coach Lindy Ruff. “I think we missed the net a few times, we didn’t funnel pucks when we had opportunities.
“Some of our execution, even our power play, I think one of the biggest differences in the game was that our power play really could have helped us out.”
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