In Edmonton, the Oilers stumbled on home ice in a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
Cam Talbot made 38 saves for the Wild and four different skaters hit for goals in the win.
“It was an intense game, we expected that coming into this building against a team that didn’t have the game they wanted the last game [5-1 loss to Los Angeles Kings on Sunday],” Talbot said. “We knew they were going to come out hard, and they did, and we weathered the storm and we came out with the win. I can’t say enough about the way we closed out the game. You don’t want to have lulls in the game, but give the guys credit, they just found a way to battle and win the hockey game.”
The Wild improved to 18-6-1.
“I’ve been back in this building a couple of times, but never got the start,” Talbot said. “It’s nice, this place will always have a place in our heart, we started our family here and it was a great building to play in and I still have a lot of great friends here. It’s one of those things where you look forward to coming back here every time, and it’s even more fun when you get a big win.”
Joel Eriksson Ek scored off the power play in the first period for a 1-0 lead to the Wild.
Minnesota held the Oilers’ Connor McDavid to an assist.
Jesse Puljujarvi scored, the Oilers only goal.
Edmonton dropped to 16-8-0 and have lost three in a row.
“We had way more energy tonight, we had way more determination and battle getting to the net,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “We didn’t get rewarded for it, but that’s a step in the right direction.”
Marcus Foligno pushed the Wild lead to 2-0 before the Oilers got on the board.
Victor Rask e and Dmitry Kulikov scored in the third period for the 4-2 final.
“We’re a confident group right now,” Kulikov said. “We came out strong, we jumped out to a two-goal lead and then our penalty kill helped and Talbot was strong in the net. They came at us hard in the second period, but we weathered it and were able to kill penalties and we were able to turn it in the third period because we knew we didn’t have our best in the second.”
Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves in the Oilers loss.
“We had some chances but we’re not capitalizing as much as we were earlier in the year,” Tippett said. “You have to keep pounding away. We’re still getting some looks, and sometimes the puck goes into the net probably more than they should, and sometimes they don’t go in as much as they should. Tonight was one of those nights that we didn’t get enough around the net.”
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