In Edmonton, the Oilers toyed with the New York Rangers for the first 20 minutes on Friday night.
Then they just faded.
Alexis Lafreniere scored in the sixth round of penalties to give the Rangers an improbable 5-4 win.
The Oilers took a 3-0 lead in the first period, and exited the stanza with a 4-1 advantage.
New York scored twice in the third period with Lafreniere and Mike Zibanejad (power play) scoring to force extra time which solved noting.
“If you look at that first period, you might say that’s a horrendous first period going down 4-1, but I thought we did some good things and the way we created some chances was good,” Zibanejad said. “We had to make sure we trust our way of playing; just being patient, there is 40 minutes left at that point, and little by little you try to get back into the game, and that’s what we did.”
It was the Rangers seventh straight win.
New York held the Oilers to two shots on goal in the third.
“We had a clear understanding that the team that came in was one of the hottest in the League and they have a lot of skill on their team, and we knew they weren’t going to surrender,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We were a little bit soft on the coverage on the third goal and then they scored a 5-on-3. It was disappointing that we didn’t find the second point tonight.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins,, Tyson Barrie, and Derek Ryan struck in the first period for a 3-0 advantage.
Chris Kreider scored his first of the game, on the power play, at 13:36 of the frame to get one back for the Rangers.
Leon Draisaitl scored the Oilers final goal of the period, and the game with 97 seconds left in the first for a 4-1 lad headed to the middle stanza.
Igor Shesterkin recovered from a dismal first period and made 25 saves in the win.
The Rangers improved to 34-14-8.
“I thought we played a good first period, they had two power-play goals, we had great chances and I thought Campbell was outstanding in the first,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “It could have easily been a 4-4 hockey game after one. I like the way we played.
“We were down 4-1, [but] I thought the game was far from over. We still have 40 minutes. It’s the NHL. It’s not like the game was going to be over, and we battled hard and found a way.”
Kreider scored his second goal of the game in the second period, his 25th of the season to trim the Oilers lead to 4-2 going into the third.
Kreider’s goal was shorthanded after taking a breakout pass from Adam Fox who stole the puck from the Oilers.Connor McDavid.
“We got some timely goals and special teams was big, outside of the first period, and we were able to bounce back,” Fox said. “I thought [Shesterkin] made some big saves when we needed and we were able to battle back. He made a big save when it was 4-1 right in tight, and obviously, if they make it 5-1, it’s a different game. But the short-handed goal was big.”
Edmonton dropped to 30-19-7.
McDavid picked up his 100th point of the season on an assist on the Nugent-Hopkins goal in the first, he had two assists on the night for 101 points.
Jack Campbell made 34 saves in the loss.
“[Campbell] played really well; it was disappointing,” said McDavid. “We had a 4-1 lead, but I didn’t think it was a 4-1 game. I thought we did a lot of good things on the power play and capitalized on some chances, but it wasn’t good enough.”
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