In Edmonton, Mike Smith made 37 saves and the Oilers defeated the New York Islanders, 3-1, on Friday. The win was the first for new coach Jay Woodcroft. 
“It’s a good team win,” Woodcroft said. “I enjoyed the way the game was played today. I thought our players really played hard for each other. [Goalie] Mike Smith really turned in an ‘A’ performance, it allowed us a chance to work our way into the game. I thought we got better as the game went on tonight, and what I really liked to see, when the game was on the line in the third period, we valued hard plays and that’s a credit to the players in the dressing room.”
The Oilers improved to 24-18-3.
Anthony Beauvillier picked up the lone goal for the Isles.
“I thought we came out with a great first period, we were skating well, we were creating a lot in their zone and we got a lot of chances,” the Islanders’ Andy Greene said. “We just couldn’t get that first one to get going. I thought we played a really good game today.”
New York dropped to 17-18-6.
“I thought in the first period we had some really good looks. I thought we could have been up a couple of goals in the first period,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “We didn’t find the back of the net, that was a little bit of us and a little bit of Mike Smith. I thought he played very well. We had some really good looks. It was 2-1 and I thought we had it tied up, Casey [Cizikas] had a breakaway, [Beauvillier] hit the crossbar. I thought [Oliver Wahlstrom] scored, and it didn’t happen.
“Then they score a power-play goal, where it sort of got bumped to the middle and it bounced around and they whacked at it and put it in the net. We couldn’t get it tied up.”
Cody Ceci and Zach Hyman staked the Oilers to a 2-0 lead.
“For me, I think goal-scoring is funny; you score in spurts, it seems like,” Hyman said. “One of my first coaches [Mike Babcock] said something to me that stuck was that at the end of the year, you tally up all of the goals and it all evens out at the end. Your shooting percentage will even out at the end, so you’re going to have spurts in your season where you’re not scoring for an extended period of time, then you’ll have spurts where you’re scoring a lot.”
The Oilers’ Jesse Puljujarvi hit for a power play goal in the third period for the 3-1 final.
“It was an emotional 24 hours, [Tippett] and Jimmy [Playfair] have been a big part of my career,” Smith said. I owe a lot to ‘Tip’ and what he has done for me.
“From a personal standpoint, it’s difficult, but it’s part of the business and we have all been through it a time or two. For [Woodcroft] to come in and [Dave Manson] to come in on short notice on a game day, they were able to get their message across and we were humming right from the drop of the puck. It was nice to see, and to win is the important thing, so that was great too.”
Ilya Sorokin made 33 saves in the Islanders loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.