Cam Talbot made 31 saves Thursday night for the Oilers on home ice as Edmonton defeated the Washington Capitals, 4-1.
“We limited their chances. We gave up one goal against a team that likes to win 6-5, 5-4. We knew coming in we couldn’t give them power-play opportunities, and we only gave them one. The way we checked tonight is what we need to do,” Talbot said after the win.
Rookie Evan Bouchard scored his first career NHL goal for the Oilers in the win.
“It feels good to beat the Stanley Cup champs,” Bouchard said. “I thought it was all around a good game. It was pretty special to go from watching [Washington] in the Stanley Cup Final last year, to getting to play against them. The goal was pretty special. I didn’t actually see it go in. I just saw the guys celebrating.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers who improved to 4-3-1.
“It definitely is a confidence boost,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Just the way we played tonight, it didn’t matter who we played, we played a solid 60 minutes and didn’t give up too many Grade-A opportunities, or give up the puck too much. And when we had our chances, we capitalized. To keep a team like that to one goal is a good sign for our club.”
Former Capitals, Alex Chiasson, scored and Connor McDavid added an empty-net goal to close out the scoring.
“I really felt like, against a dangerous transition team, we really fueled their offense by the way we handled the puck,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said. “Our puck management was poor, and a lot of turnovers got us into trouble and kind of tilted the ice in their favor for really no reason.”
Andre Burakovsky scored the Caps’ only goal in the game.
[WATCH:Â All Capitals vs. Oilers highlights]
Braden Holtby made 28 saves in the loss as the Caps dropped to 4-3-2.
You must be logged in to post a comment.