On the heels of a dramatic 5-4 OT win against Columbus, the pressure was on the Oilers to carry over their momentum into a Wednesday night clash against the Flyers. While is ultimately wasn't a pretty victory by any means, Edmonton scraped out a tight 2-1 victory thanks to strong nights from Matt Savoie, Jack …
On the heels of a dramatic 5-4 OT win against Columbus, the pressure was on the Oilers to carry over their momentum into a Wednesday night clash against the Flyers. While is ultimately wasn’t a pretty victory by any means, Edmonton scraped out a tight 2-1 victory thanks to strong nights from Matt Savoie, Jack Roslovic and Stuart Skinner.
The Oilers came out in the first 5 minutes looking perhaps a bit jetlagged, as they allowed a number of high danger scoring chances to the flyers right of the bat, most notably when Owen Tippett hammered a shot off the bar behind Stuart Skinner. As the period went on, the Oilers settled in and controlled both the possession and the number of scoring chances, led by very strong periods from the two newly assembled lines of Mangiapane-McDavid-Savoie and Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Roslovic. As the time ticked down in the period, the Oilers got on the board first with an absolute rip from Evan Bouchard after McDavid and Savoie created some chaos in front of Dan Vladars net:
The Oilers took their 1-0 lead into the second period as they continued to rachet up the pressure against Philly, but they were unable to add on to their lead. This looked a lot like the Oilers of the last few seasons, as they worked the shot clock – at one point outshooting the Flyers 24-7 – but struggled to find the back of the net and put a nail in Philly’s coffin. Edmonton’s lack of extending the lead came back to bite them as Matvei Michkov would tie up the game on a snipe from the circle following a very questionable game-managing call against the Oilers.
Entering the third tied up at 1, both teams seemed to be playing more for overtime than for the regulation win, as the game became very dump and chase and passive by both sides. Not much of not happened in this frame until with only 25 seconds left, Philly scored on a shot from the point and appeared to win the game, but the Oilers were bailed out by a razor thin offsides call after challenging. After McDavid and Draisaitl failed to get it done in the first minute of overtime, Jack Roslovic and Matt Savoie turned a Flyers turnover into a two-on-oh, and for the second straight game Jack Roslovic scored the overtime winner for Edmonton, to improve their record to 8-6-4:
-Stuart Skinner had one of his best games of the season. He put up a .952 sv% with 20 saves, and along with that he made a number of big saves to keep the Oilers afloat. Skinners problem has always been consistency, not potential, so hopefully he can string a few solid games together after this.
-Matt Savoie loves playing in Philadelphia. After putting up an assist in his Oilers debut in Philly last year, Savoie had two assists and played possible his best game as an Oiler last night. If he can continue to put up points playing on a line with McDavid, that will greatly benefit the Oilers, especially as Zach Hyman comes back and they could possibly run a Savoie-McDavid-Hyman line.
-Jack Roslovic is the truth. Jack Roslovic continued his scorching hot streak with another huge game winning goal. He has been everything Oilers fans could have hoped for and more, as his 5-6-11 statline in 16 games is exactly the kind of secondary scoring the Oilers are always starved for.
-Edmonton continues their 7 game road trip tonight as they play the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time in 4 nights. Calvin Pickard will draw the start in net and attempt to get his game going after a tough start to the season.
