Oilers lose sixth straight

In Edmonton, it may not be panic time, but concern should be mounting.

On Tuesday night, the Oilers lost their sixth straight game, this time, 5-1, to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Edmonton has dropped to 16-11-0.

Auston Matthews struck for a pair of goals for the Leafs.

“I think it was a pretty solid game other than maybe the second period. I thought for the first 10 minutes there, they really took control of the game,” Matthews said. “I think we were just a little bit back on our heels, but [Campbell] made some unbelievable saves, not only in that period, but the whole game and we just weathered the storm, and we were able to give ourselves a bit of a cushion in the third.”

Jack Campbell made 35 saves in the Maple Leafs win.

Colton Sceviour scored the Oilers lone goal to cut the Maple Leafs lead at the time to 3-1.

“I think we started really well. We had a game plan to be aggressive and go straight ahead and I thought we did that for the most part in the first period and it led to some really good chances for us,” Oilers associate coach Jim Playfair said.

“I thought we continued that mindset in the second, but coming out of the first with a goal being scored against us … that puts you behind the eight ball and now you’re chasing a little bit and we’ve done that, as we all know, too often lately.”

Toronto improved to 20-8-2.

Matthews, Wayne Simmonds and TJ Brodie scored to give the Maple Leafs the 3-0 lead.

“I thought our guys did a really good job of capitalizing on our chances, making good on them and I thought we played a really disciplined game defensively,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “At times, we defended more than we would like, but I thought we did a good job of doing the things we were looking to do before the game, which was to limit the space and speed of their best people.”

Matthews and Morgan Rielly  scored to make it the 5-1 final.

Mikko Koskinen made 20 saves in the Oilers loss.

“I think the most frustrating part of the whole thing is that if you look at the last three or four games, we played in stretches better than the teams we were playing against,” Sceviour said. “Then when we gave up opportunities, we gave up Grade A-pluses and I think that’s probably the thing we need to get over the most. Some of those chances we’re giving up, you can’t afford to give them up against good players in the NHL, because they’re going to end up in the back of your net.”