In Edmonton, the long, slow spiral of the Columbus Blue Jackets continued Saturday night. The Oilers tagged the Jackets with a 4-1 loss.
Mikko Koskinen made 45 saves to earn the victory for the Oilers.
Gustav Nyquist had the lone goal for Columbus, it came with 59 seconds left on the clock in the third period.
“[Koskinen] was unbelievable, the rest of the group wasn’t so unbelievable,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. “I was worried about us a little bit this morning when there wasn’t much juice in our group at the morning skate. I don’t know if it was mental fatigue or whatever it is, but we were not good tonight. Our execution was poor and our ability to win battles to get to pucks was really poor, but our goaltender was really good, so we got two points.”
Two things may save the Blue Jackets, all around their rivals are losing and they are 2-6-6 in their swoon, and those loser points may come in handy.
“I thought we checked well, we were skating, and off that we had some chances and got to play in their zone a little bit,” Columbus’ Boone Jenner said. “I thought we were skating. [Koskinen] was really good. Obviously, we want to bear down on some of those chances to get it by him and change the momentum of the game. It’s just about finding a way to get a few past him and get on the other side of these games.”
Alex Chiasson, Caleb Jones and Connor McDavid ran the Oilers to a 3-0 lead in the game.
“I felt good. I think we still played pretty well, we kept them on the outside,” Koskinen said. “They got a lot of shots, but most of them were from the outside. I think it was big that we kept them down in the first, and after that we got a little bit better, and it was a big win for us.”
Riley Sheahan added an empty net sealer for the final.
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Oilers highlights]
Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves in the loss.
“That’s the way we have to play. I thought we played a good game,” Columbus’ Zach Werenski said. “It’s a tough outcome, but that’s part of hockey, and right now we have to find a way to get two points no matter who we play. I think we can take away a lot of positives going into tomorrow night (at the Vancouver Canucks) and we just have to tell ourselves this is how we have to play. If we play like that, I think we’re going to win a lot more games than we’re going to lose. It’s just unfortunate tonight we came out on the wrong side of things.”
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