In Edmonton, the Oilers won their third straight and defeated the Nashville Predators, 3-2, after the skills competition, on Thursday night.
Connor McDavid scored in regulation and was credited with the deciding goal in the skills potion of the evening’s contest.
“I think we’re starting to see some games that we saw at the beginning of the year and guys are starting to get their confidence back and we’re getting good goaltending,” McDavid said. “Mikko has been a rock back there and when he plays like that it makes our job easier and we have to make his job easier too and be better in front of him.”
Mikko Koskinen made 28 saves in the Oilers win.
“The last couple games we have played really well and I am happy to see that,” Koskinen said. “I think we have learned our lessons. We can’t look too far ahead, it is cliche, but you have to take it one game at a time, otherwise our focus is not there. We are building our game and doing a lot of good things right now. There is still a lot of room to improve and if we do that it is going to be a really strong team at the end of the year.”
Edmonton improved to 21-16-2.
“I think they shoot quite a bit, they’re a high-shot generation team, so we did spend some time in our zone for sure,” Predators head coach John Hynes said. “I think they’re the No. 1 team in offensive zone time in the League, but I thought we did a pretty good job. We were in there more than we wanted to be, but I thought we did a pretty good job of making sure we took care of some Grade-A areas and Juuse made some big saves, but I thought when we were called upon to defend in those areas, I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg were the Predators strikers.
“I thought we played pretty well, we didn’t give up too much,” Duchene said. “I would love to see the chances; I feel like we had a few more than they did, their goalie played outstanding, he made some big saves.
“Juuse did as well for us, both goalies were good in the shootout. And when you get to the shootout, it’s a bit of a coin flip, it’s a bit of a skills comp, and our shooters, including myself, weren’t able to find one. That’s the way it goes.”
Nashville dropped to 27-14-4.
Evan Bouchard pushed the game to extra time with his third period goal for a 2-2 tie.
“There’s lots of work in our game and there is lot of try in our game, which we really like, but there’s a couple of areas we can clean up a little bit,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “But for the most part, we’re solid, we have everybody working hard and [Koskinen] was really strong. When they go 0-for-3 in the shootout, that gives you a chance to win.”
Juuse Saros made 44 saves in the Preds loss.
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