In Edmonton, Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for the New York Rangers who scored three times in the middle frame for a 3-0 shutout of the Oilers on Thursday.
It was Quick’s first shutout of the season.
“We got the win, right? So, that’s first and foremost,” Quick said. “We’re playing the right way. We’re keeping the puck, we’re keeping their team in front of our [defensemen] and making them come through five guys in order to get a chance.
“If you consistently do that, it’s a good recipe for winning games. Against a team as potent as they are, held to two power plays and how well we did on the [penalty kill] definitely contributes to the win.”
Quick has won his first two starts of the campaign.
“At the end of the day, it is just not good enough,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “But it is Game 7, we don’t have time to hang our heads here or get frustrated and go ‘woe is me.’ “It is time right now. No matter what we have done in the past, it is about right now and looking forward to Sunday.”
Adam Fox e scored off the power play at 3:32 of the middle frame, on a one-timer from the left circle.
Braden Schneider scored at 12:03 of the period to push the lead to 2-0, on a slap shot from the slot that went left corner.
“Whether McDavid’s in there or not, they’re still a great team and they have a lot of offensive flair,” Schneider said. “It’s a huge two points for us; [Draisaitl] is an elite player. Holding him to three shots is a huge win and I think our team played a great defensive game, and ‘Quicky’ made some unbelievable saves.
“He’s an unbelievable teammate. He’s talking to everyone, he’s involved in everything, I can’t say enough good things about him. The way he is at the rink, he competes hard, he’s just an unbelievable person and an even better hockey player and I’m very glad that we have him on our team.”
Alexis Lafreniere then scored off a nifty pass from Artemi Panarin to the right side where Lafreniere one-timed it from his knees for the 3-0 final.
“Things like that always factor into it, and his career numbers versus Edmonton are really good and strong,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of the decision to start Quick. “And he’s coming off a pretty good performance as well.
“They had a lot of chances in the second period and Quicky played really well for us. I thought we could have had three more in the second. There were a lot of looks and posts in that period where I thought there was opportunity for us.”
Stuart Skinner made 29 saves on the night, and was forced to go post to post most of the night, especially in the middle frame.
“We had a lull for two periods,” the Oilers’ Zach Hyman said. “It can’t happen, obviously. It is not who we are. It just wasn’t a level of work ethic that dictates play. It is not just one guy off to a poor start, it is collectively as a group. We are an offensive team and we scored zero goals today.
“A lot of the blame has been on our [defensive] zone or our defensive system, or our defense, but we didn’t score anything today. There is no finger-pointing. Everybody in the room has to take a step and elevate their game like we know we can.”
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