In Edmonton, the Oilers’ Zach Hyman hit for a double on Sunday night in a 6-1 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
Calvin Pickard mad 23 saves in the win.
“It was a good game,” Pickard said. “We defended really well all night. Right from the puck drop we had a good kill early in the game and really took control.
“We scored in the first and didn’t look back.”
The Oilers improved to 37-20-2.
“I thought we played well considering the back-to-back with some travel,” Edmonton’s Brett Kulak said. “We had the benefit of getting in at a decent time yesterday, but still, they’re hard. You get tired, especially at this point in the season, but it was nice to see the start we had.
“And again, goaltending was really good, and that’s always a big part of the team. So, it was a good night for us.”
Edmonton scored four in the middle frame, bookended by single markers in the first and third for a 6-0 lead before the Pens got on the board.
In the opening stanza, Hyman potted his first of the game at 14:07 of the first for a 1-0 lead to the Oilers.
“I think we took advantage of a team that had been travelling, played late last night. Yeah, we had a little travel, too, but they’re coming at the end of a road trip, and I thought we took advantage of it,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We were up one after the first period, but we really built our game.
“I thought we were strong from the start. We didn’t take any steps back and were able to capitalize on those chances in the second period.”
In the middle frame, Corey Perry pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 2:57, scoring off an odd man rush.
Hyman collected his double at at 5:55 for a 3-0 lead, scoring off a set play at the face off.
The Penguins dropped to 27-24-8 off their third straight loss.
“I think we had a tough loss (in Calgary), and I don’t know if we did a good enough job of just moving by it,” Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby said. “I think that you got to find a way even when it’s one like that, to move by it.
“We probably didn’t do a good enough job.”
Ryan McLeod stretched the lead to 4-0 at 18:47, scoring off a shot to the back of the Penguins netminder.
Cody Ceci ballooned the lead to 5-0 when he scored 23 seconds after the McLeod goal.
“I thought we came to play. Four lines, 60 (minutes), [Pickard] was outstanding when we needed him,” the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl said. “It was a really good effort by us. You need those games every once in a while, but we put a lot of work into creating a game like that. It doesn’t just happen. We put a lot of work into it and did the little things right. Every once in a while a game like that is nice.”
Connor McDavid padded the lead when he struck at 6:03 of the third period.
Evgeni Malkin scored a so what goal to ruin the shutout bid at 12:23.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves in the loss.
“It was a tough one today, and not making excuses, we had some travel issues and we didn’t get in until 3:30, 4 a.m. here,” Nedeljkovic said. “We played a late game last night, so it was tough and they’re a really tough team as well. They play really fast and they played like a team that had some energy and some jump, and we didn’t.”
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