In Toronto, the Edmonton Oilers made short work of the extra session on Monday when Darnell Nurse scored with 17 seconds gone in overtime.
“He’s earned his confidence,” Edmonton head coach Dave Tippett said. “To be a really good player in this League, like you’re seeing that he is, you’ve got to do a lot of things right. You’ve got to put the work in and you hope that work turns into results. I can’t say enough about him. I see what goes on behind the scenes and the work he puts in, and it’s so good to see him get the results.”
The goal gave the Oilers a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs and a split of their two-game stet.
“As a team, we knew what we were capable of and we knew we were capable of getting in the win column here tonight,” Nurse said. “It was just a big win for us and something to build off of into the final stretch of the season. Smith, each and every night, he’s been unbelievable. He’s been making big saves like he did tonight in overtime.”
Mike Smith made 29 saves to get the win for the Oilers.
Josh Archibald gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead early in the first period.
Mitchell Marner tied it at 1-1 a few minutes after the Oilers took the lead.
“The way we focused in and defended, I thought we did a good job here again tonight against their best people,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “That’s important going up against the deepest opponent we’re going to face in our division in terms of their forward lines, so we’ve got to have that level of focus every shift. That’s something for us to take away for sure.”
Auston Matthews gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead just past the midway point of the opening frame.
“I thought we had some really, really good stretches especially early on in the first period where it seemed like we had all five guys in sync throughout all three zones and weren’t giving them much,” Matthews said. “There were some stretches where we got away from ourselves a bit and gave them opportunities and weren’t strong on pucks. You could really go either way with it.”
Kyle Turris was credited with the game-tying goal early in the third period when the puck deflected off his knee for a 2-2 score.
“You need [depth scoring],” Tippett said. “We got a break on Turris’ goal, but I was happy for Turris. He’s gone through a lot between struggling early, played a couple strong games for us, and then got quarantined for a while. If one deserved to have one go off (them), it was him, so it was good to see
it go in for him. But that depth scoring, you need to have guys chip in from all over the place in tight games. McDavid and [Leon] Draisaitl are going to do their share, but the more people who can chip in, the better.”
Michael Hutchinsonmade 20 saves in the loss.
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