In Edmonton, Mikko Koskinen made 31 saves and the the Oilers defeated the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1, on Saturday.
Connor McDavid hit for a double in the win.
“I liked a lot of things about our game,” McDavid said. “Our power play could have been better (1-for-7), but we found a way to get a big goal there. Obviously our PK stepped up; that 5-on-3 was serious, and ‘Leo’ and [Darnell] Nurse were blocking those [shots], and ‘Dunc’ [Duncan Keith] doing a great job and Mikko doing his thing. I thought it was a well-rounded win.”
Edmonton improved to 32-23-4.
“I’m not sure what it is, I think we just find a comfort level in our game,” McDavid said. “Obviously the start is important. We haven’t found a way to get the first goal too many times, so when we do, we have to bear down and find a way to get a win. I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
Zach Bogosian was the lone striker for Tampa.
“We were grinding and sticking with it, but definitely making it hard on ourselves by taking a lot of penalties tonight,” the Lightning’s Ryan McDonagh said. “When you give their top-end guys a lot of puck touches and a lot of time and space, they’re going to gradually get more confidence as the game gets on. It’s on us to be better disciplined there and that will definitely help our chances moving forward.”
The Lightning dropped to
“When things aren’t going well for you, you invent ways to shoot yourself in the foot,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Whether it’s turnovers, taking too many penalties, we’re finding ways on this road trip to make it hard on ourselves. If you’re going to take that many penalties and you’re going to put some of the best players in the world on the ice all night, it’s going to be tough for you.”
Bogosian scored in the third period to cut the Oilers lead at the time to 2-1.
Yamamoto hit for an empty net goal to ice the win.
“We had 49 shots on net tonight, that’s a real positive sign offensively, and we hit numerous posts and crossbars,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We went into that third period against the two-time Stanley Cup champions and I thought we played a really mature third period. It didn’t go exactly according to script, there were some high drama moments, but we found a way to get the win.”
Leon Draisaitl and Kailer Yamamoto added single markers for Edmonton.
Brian Elliott made 45 saves in the Lightning loss.
“The ‘Moose’ [Elliott] was great, he gave us a chance to win the game and we had the chance with the extended 5-on-3,” Cooper said. “If you don’t score on those; a wiseman once told me, it’s tough to win the game when you have an extended 5-on-3 and don’t score, and that’s what happened.” 
Draisaitl scored off a breakaway to restore the Oilers’ two-goal lead.
“You get behind in those types of games you have to battle your way back, and I thought we tried,” Elliott said. “We got that 2-1 goal and guys took some hits to make that play and ‘Bogo’ finished on it. You could feel the tide turning a little bit, and then you give away the puck to the wrong guy and I didn’t come up with that save. You feel good about your performance, but then you wish you had a couple of saves that you could keep the game a little bit closer.”
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