In Edmonton, the Oilers won their sixth straight game on Friday night, 4-3, over the visiting Minnesota Wild.
Evan Bouchard hit for a double in the win.
“I think it’s more so when the team’s doing well than when individuals do well,” Bouchard said. “And I think that’s the case right now.”
The Oilers moved to 11-12-1.
“The last two weeks, we’ve seen a lot of goals generated from his shot,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “His shot was 97 miles an hour, and that doesn’t hurt.
“It’s a skill. There’s plenty of guys that can place a shot in the right position, but not many can hammer it like that. There’s very few that can do both.”
Stuart Skinner made 17 saves in the win.
Edmonton came out hard in the opening stanza, out shooting the Wild, 18-4.
Bouchard scored his first of the game at 15:16 for a 1-0 lead to Edmonton.
Minnesota rallied in the middle frame when they scored a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead.
“I didn’t have any problem with the effort. I thought we were up against it coming into the game, and that’s what the schedule is,” Hynes said. “But I really liked the compete and the battle that we had.
“Even near the end there, we gave ourselves a chance to be able to tie it and get it to overtime, possibly, on the 6-on-5, so unfortunately it didn’t go our way tonight.”
Matt Boldy tied it, 1-1, with 15 seconds of fresh ice used in the second.
Joel Eriksson Ek in put the Wild ahead, 2-1 at the 41 second mark of the middle frame.
The Wild dropped to 9-12-4. They have lost two straight after winning the first four games with new coach John Hynes.
The second period flurry of goals continued with Connor McDavid scoring at 1:21 to tie the game, 2-2.
“We dominate for 21 minutes and we’re down 2-1, and that’s tough,” Knoblauch said. “But we stayed the course, didn’t change our game plan.
“I didn’t hear complaining or frustration on the bench. It was, ‘All right, let’s get back to work.’ We recovered from it, whereas two or three weeks ago it might be a different story.”
Minnesota’s third goal of the second came from Connor Dewar at 11:56 for a 3-2 lead to the Wild.
“It’s not an excuse, but it was a tough back-to-back,” Minnesota’s Jake Middleton said. “But we played for a full 60 [minutes] tonight. We had opportunities to shoot the puck, so it couldn’t have looked as bad as that in the first period.
“But we definitely were on our heels to start the game. We gave ourselves a chance at the end. We were in until the final buzzer.”
Leon Draisaitl hit off the power play at with 90 seconds left in the second period to knot the game, again, 3-3.
Bouchard hit for his double and the game-winner at 1:32 of the third period, off the power play, to give the Oilers a 4-3 lead they protected for the win.
Marc-Andre Fleury. made 36 saves in the loss.
“Brods is a huge part of our team, a difference-maker, he plays so many minutes, so many good minutes against top lines,” Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman said. “Obviously, that stinks. It’s part of the game. We have a tight-knit group that sticks up for each other.
“Obviously, it could have gone different ways, match penalty, whatever it is, but sometimes it doesn’t go that way. It is what it is.”
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