It Official! The Oilers have won the Skinner/Jarry trade! All jokes aside, tonight's game against the Penguins was about as big a matchup as can happen in the regular, and it was important for the Oilers to come out with a win both to validate the front office's move to acquire Tristan Jarry and for …
It Official! The Oilers have won the Skinner/Jarry trade!
All jokes aside, tonight’s game against the Penguins was about as big a matchup as can happen in the regular, and it was important for the Oilers to come out with a win both to validate the front office’s move to acquire Tristan Jarry and for the confidence of the Oilers new starter. Pittsburgh has been hot to start the season, with a 14-9-9 record (After this loss), and the Oilers would need to be sharp in order to pull out a 5th win in their last 7 games.
The game started off poorly for the Oilers, with Pittsburgh getting a powerplay and then scoring on a snipe by Bryan Rust, but the Oilers PK would be bailed out as the goal call was reversed for an offsides on rookie Benjamin Kindel. After the Oilers killed the rest of the penalty, they would be gifted a weak interference penalty on the Penguins, and then after a hooking call and a delay of game from Brett Kulak, they would get a nearly two minute 5-on-3. Zach Hyman would turn a netfront scramble into a 1-0 lead (on what also happened to be Leon Draisaitl’s 1000th point), and then just 14 seconds later Connor McDavid walked the Pittsburgh defence en-route to a highlight reel goal on a lost Stuart Skinner:
Pittsburgh got a goal back before the end of the first period, and the Oilers went into the break with a 2-1 advantage. Leading off the second, both teams traded some chances before Matt Savoie received a cross-ice pass and buried a weak goal past Skinner as Penguins fans got a taste of the poor goals Stu is prone to give up:
Erik Karlsson answered back on a PP goal from the point to make it 3-2, but after the Oilers got back on a powerplay yet again, Evan Bouchard would score on a beautiful wrist shot that Skinner had no chance on at all:
Edmonton would take this lead into the 3rd, where Vasily Podkolzin added on to Stu’s rough night with a finish from the slot after Draisaitl’s attempted 3-on-1 pass to Savoie stopped right in front of the net:
Pittsburgh got a goal back, but Connor McDavid would improve his heater to 20 points in his last 7 with an empty net goal to ice the game. Pittsburgh added a late one to make it 6-4 to ruin Jarry’s .900 Save Percentage but in the end he was much better than Skinner and did enough to win this hockey game for the Oilers, which is just what he was brought in to do.
The Oilers are back in action on Thursday against the Bruins at TD Garden.
