The Florida Panthers returned to home ice Wednesday off a 5-0-0 road trip and promptly dropped a 4-3 decision to the Edmonton Oilers.
Kris Russell scored the game-winner for Edmonton with less than eight minutes left in
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored goal in win over Panthers – file photo by Lewis Ble3iman
regulation.
“They’ve got high-end talent and I thought we did a pretty good job. They’re paying well right now and I thought we answered well,” Russell said.
Cam Talbot made 33 saves for the win.
“It was a real good play by Leon (Leon Draisaitl),” Russell said. “He slows down the play so much. He does a quick pass. I just wanted to get it off quick and try and get it high. Fortunately, it went in.”
Oscar Klefbom, Zack Kassian and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton; the Oilers improved 33-20-8.
For Edmonton, it was redemption for a dreadful performance in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“If you were at the game last night and showed up and watched this one, it was two different teams. We had about 11 players last night; tonight we had 20. It takes that much to win this time of year. The message got through,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said after the win.
Aleksander Barkov, Colton Sceviour and Jonathan Marchessault had the Panthers goals.
WATCH: All Oilers vs. Panthers highlights
James Reimer stopped 31 shots in the loss.
“Four games in six nights and the effort we got I thought was outstanding. We did a lot of good things. Everybody gave us good minutes. It’s just we didn’t make a couple of reads on the defensive side of the puck that cost us on that last rush,” Florida head coach Tom Rowe said.
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