Compher scores overtime winner as Avalanche top Oilers 4-3

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- A late comeback bid by the Oilers didn't deflate the Colorado Avalanche.

J.T Compher scored 2:28 into overtime as the Avalanche snapped a three-game losing skid with a 4-3 victory over the Oilers, who had tied the game with just 27 seconds left in the third to send it to extra time.

"I thought we played well most of the game, only to unfortunately lose the lead late in the third," said Compher, who scored his 10th goal of the season. "I thought we played well enough to finish it off, and for us to get that extra point in overtime at the end is huge for us with the playoff race we are in.

"A huge part of our team is character. You are going to let in goals late like that every now and then, but for us to bounce back and get the two points was huge going forward."

Nikita Zadorov, Blake Comeau and Samuel Girard also scored for the Avalanche, who had a 10-game winning streak before going on their recent skid.

"It is nice to get a win after losing three in a row," Zadorov said. "We have gotten three of the four points on this road trip so far, so it has been a good trip for us."

Connor McDavid had a pair of goals, and Drake Caggiula scored once for the Oilers, who have lost two of their last three.

Edmonton had tied it with just 27 seconds remaining in regulation and the goalie pulled as McDavid rifled in a puck after it caromed off the boards.

"Both teams really needed that extra point," Oilers forward Milan Lucic said. "For most of that overtime, we had possession - we just weren't able to get the shot off to get the goal. They were able to get the bounce and get the point. It's a big one to give up and a big point for them with both teams being where they are in the standings."

There was no scoring and few good chances in the first period, with Colorado getting 10 shots on Oilers backup Al Montoya and Edmonton putting eight shots on the Avalanche's Jonathan Bernier.

Colorado broke the deadlock three minutes into the second period when Zadorov picked off a poor Edmonton clearing attempt and proceeded to beat Montoya up high for his fourth goal of the season.

The Avalanche went up 2-0 five minutes later on a power-play blast by Girard, his first goal in 36 games with Colorado since coming over in a trade with Nashville earlier this season.

McDavid knocked in his own rebound out of the air and into the net for his 16th of the season just over a minute later.

Caggiula pushed a puck across the goal line while Bernier attempted to smother it with his glove with less than a minute to go in the second period, but a review nullified the goal.

Shortly afterward, the Avalanche got a short-handed goal on a backhand shot by Comeau.

Edmonton pulled back within one seven minutes into the third as Caggiula tipped a shot out of midair for his seventh.

NOTES: It was the first of three meetings this season between the teams. ... Due to some quirks in the schedule, the Oilers had only played three games in the previous 18 days, but play 33 games in the next 66 days.

UP NEXT:

Avalanche: at Winnipeg on Saturday.

Oilers: host Tampa Bay on Monday.

McDavid scores in shootout to lift Oilers over Flames 4-3

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Connor McDavid used both his actions and his words to express his displeasure with an overtime call Thursday night.

McDavid scored in the third round of the shootout to help the Edmonton Oilers salvage a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames.

The shootout tally came after McDavid thought he had set up the winner on a goal by Ryan Strome in overtime, only to have it called back after he was charged with goaltender interference for clipping David Rittich's on his way through the crease.

Upset the goal was called off, McDavid was seen indicating that maybe they should check upstairs to see if his shootout winner was valid as well.

"I shouldn't have done that, but it was frustrating," the Oilers captain said. "I think everyone just wants it to be black and white, to be goaltender interference or not. I saw it on the Jumbotron and what I saw was just myself trying to make a play at the net and I was trying to get out of the way. I do avoid the goalie, but I catch his stick."

Brandon Davidson scored twice and Zack Kassian had a goal for the Oilers, who rallied from 2-0 down to win their fourth in five games.

"It had been a month since I had played and I just wanted to keep getting better every shift," Davidson said. "It was a good win for our team and it was great to contribute."

Matthew Tkachuk had two goals and Mark Giordano also scored for the Flames, who have a point in 11 straight games despite their fourth straight loss in extra time (7-0-4).

Calgary scored 1:32 into the first period on the first shot of the game. After a giveaway by Oilers forward Milan Lucic, Troy Brouwer chipped a puck from behind the net out to Tkachuk, who scored his 15th of the season on goalie Cam Talbot.

It was the eighth time this season the Oilers have allowed a goal on an opponent's first shot.

Calgary made it 2-0 with 5:39 to play in the opening frame when Giordano scored on a long screen shot during a delayed penalty.

The Oilers finally got on the board with six minutes to play in the second as a spin-around shot from a bad angle by Davidson surprised goalie David Rittich.

Edmonton tied it just over a minute later when Kassian cashed in on the rebound from Leon Draisaitl's shot.

The Oilers took the lead five minutes into the third period when Ryan Strome fed it in front to Davidson, who scored his second of the game and the season.

Calgary pulled back even eight minutes into the third when Edmonton defenseman Matt Benning lost the puck behind his net, leading to Tkachuk's second goal of the game.

Strome had a goal called off in overtime on goaltender interference, much to the ire of Edmonton fans.

NOTES: It was the third of five meetings between the teams this season, with Edmonton winning the previous two and the last six encounters overall.

UP NEXT

Flames: Host Vegas on Tuesday night.

Oilers: Host Colorado on Thursday night.

–––

More AP hockey: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

Nurse scores in OT to lift Oilers over Golden Knights 3-2

By W.G. RAMIREZ
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) – The Edmonton Oilers have done something no other NHL team has this season: beat the Vegas Golden Knights twice.

Darnell Nurse scored 55 seconds into overtime to lift the Oilers past Vegas 3-2 on Saturday night. Edmonton also handed the Golden Knights their worst loss of the season, an 8-2 shellacking on Nov. 14.

Patrick Maroon and Drake Caggiula also scored for the Oilers, and Cam Talbot made 34 saves.

Caggiula assisted on the winner after leading a 2-on-1 break against defender Shea Theodore and finding the streaking Nurse in front of the net.

"I saw the puck come over the blue line, and Draker had it and we saw one D, so I just took off and he made a great play to the middle and all I had to do was shoot it hard," Nurse said.

William Karlsson and Reilly Smith scored for Vegas, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots.

Vegas, coming off its bye week, was playing for the first time since Jan. 6 when they beat the New York Rangers 2-1. The loss was just its second in 12 games, while it dropped to 18-3-1 at home.

"Tonight was all about having five days off," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. "We weren't sharp. We didn't play our typical game. We still played OK, but we weren't as sharp as we could've been. Am I worried about it? No. I think some of the bad stuff we did, some of the habits, is from the five days off and having one day of practice."

The Oilers, meanwhile, were playing for the second time in two nights after a 4-2 win in Arizona. Edmonton, which is 3-6-1 in its last 10 games, begins its bye week Sunday.

"We wanted to go into the break with two wins within our division and go in feeling good about ourselves and have the opportunity to rest up and get back at it in five," Nurse said.

Edmonton got on the board first, when Nurse's pass caromed off Maroon's left skate and slid beneath Fleury's pads. Connor McDavid assisted.

It didn't take long for the Golden Knights to respond, as Smith picked up the puck behind the net, skated around long enough to shake McDavid and then skated right up to Talbot before going top shelf for his 12th goal. Deryk Engelland was credited with an assist to tally his 100th career point.

Vegas' second goal was set up nicely by Smith, who laid a big hit on Edmonton's Kris Russell, allowing Jonathan Marchessault to skate free with the puck and set up Karlsson in front of the net for the one-timer. Karlsson, who many believe was snubbed from the Pacific Division All-Star team, scored his 23rd goal of the season, fifth-highest in the league.

Caggiula tied the game for the Oilers, who displayed excellent passing on a 3-on-1 break in transition. Maroon and McDavid assisted on the goal. It was McDavid's 200th career point, in just the 173rd game of his NHL career. He is the fourth-quickest active player and third youngest active player to reach 200 points.

The Golden Knights had several opportunities with a man advantage, but were 0 for 6 on the power play. The Oilers, whose penalty kill ranks last in the NHL, has the third-best road percentage when short-handed.

"It's astounding the difference in numbers, but to hold a team like that to 0 for 6, that's the game right there," Talbot said. "If they pound one in in the power play, game's over. Give a lot of credit to the PK, I don't think we gave up a lot of shots, maybe one per kill, that's a pretty good number against a team like that."

NOTES: Paid attendance was a season-high 18,351. ... Former Oilers great Wayne Gretzky was in attendance. ... Vegas wing Pierre-Edouard Bellemare left the game with 11:38 left in the first period after Nurse's slap shot struck him in the face. He returned later in the period with his right eyebrow stitched. ... McDavid celebrated his 21st birthday Saturday, and a heavily orange-clad fan section sang "Happy Birthday" midway through the first period.

UP NEXT

Edmonton: Hosts Vancouver on Jan. 20.

Vegas: Visits Nashville on Tuesday night.

---

More AP hockey: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

Arvidsson powers Predators past Oilers 2-1

By JIM DIAMOND
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Viktor Arvidsson and the Nashville Predators cruised into their bye week with another win against the Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid and company are searching for answers.

Arvidsson had a goal and an assist, helping the Predators top the Oilers 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Craig Smith also scored and Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in Nashville's 11th consecutive win against Edmonton. The Predators were coming off a 4-3 win at the Kings on Saturday night and don't play again until next Tuesday against Vegas.

"It puts everybody in the right frame of mind," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "It's a chance to get away - rest your mind, rest your body and do it on a winning note, which is positive, and come back and be ready to get going again."

The free-falling Oilers have lost seven of eight. McDavid scored, and Cam Talbot had 22 stops.

"I thought tonight we worked hard enough for a break," coach Todd McLellan said. "I'm not sure that we were in that situation in prior games. If we play like that, we'll have our opportunities to win games. It's a step in the right direction."

Edmonton appeared to tie the game with 5:04 left when Mark Letestu found a loose puck in front of Rinne and swatted it in through traffic. Nashville challenged the goal and a video review determined that the play was offside.

"Ultimately, I feel that they should just take the rule out," McDavid said. "I think the number of calls that are a millimeter offside 45 seconds before the play, it doesn't have very much of an effect on the goal itself. I think the fans want to see offense and if that's going to hold back offense, it's very frustrating. It's very hard to sit here and question the rule right now because it's obviously a little sensitive with it going against us, but I think it is something that I hope they take out."

Nashville's players were quick to credit the team's video staff, led by video coach Lawrence Feloney.

"Lawrence, that guy he must have a surgeon's eyes," Rinne said. "He sees when the skate blade is up. He doesn't get enough credit. He's the hardest-working guy in this organization."

The Predators went ahead to stay with two in the first.

With Nashville on a power play, Talbot stopped P.K. Subban's slap shot from the left point, but the rebound deflected off Arvidsson's skate before Smith poked the loose puck in for his 15th goal at 8:26.

"I thought we came out and got a good start, that's what we were looking for," Smith said.

Arvidsson got his 13th at 15:31. Roman Josi's slap shot from above the left circle hit Talbot in the left shoulder and then the face of Edmonton defenseman Adam Larsson on the right side. As the puck fell to the ice, Arvidsson tapped it by Talbot with a backhand.

Rinne denied McDavid on a breakaway with 2:14 remaining in the first. The reigning Hart Trophy winner tried to beat Rinne with a backhand, but the Finn was able to grab the shot with his glove.

McDavid then got a measure of revenge 55 seconds into the second.

With the puck on the right wall, McDavid drove around Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm before cutting toward the low slot, where he slipped a wrist shot between Rinne's pads.

NOTES: The Predators are 20-2-2 when leading after two periods this season. ... Subban has 17 points in 15 career games against Edmonton. ... The Oilers last defeated Nashville on March 18, 2014. ... Edmonton is 4-10-1 against the Central Division this season.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Visit the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.

Predators: Host the Golden Knights on Tuesday.

Forsberg makes 32 saves as Blackhawks beat Oilers 4-1

By JAY COHEN
AP Sports Writer

CHICAGO (AP) -- The first regulation win of Anton Forsberg's career was a big one for the goaltender and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Forsberg made 32 saves, Nick Schmaltz and Alex DeBrincat scored in the first period, and the Blackhawks beat the slumping Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on Sunday.

Brandon Saad and Jordan Oesterle also scored for Chicago (20-15-6), which got its first home win since a 4-1 victory against Minnesota on Dec. 17. Jonathan Toews extended his point streak to four games.

Forsberg got his second win in just his 10th start of his first season in Chicago. Forsberg had been the backup all year, but his role had come into question after Jeff Glass came up from the minors and played well with starter Corey Crawford sidelined by an upper-body injury.

"Obviously every goalie wants to play as much as possible, and I'm not any different there," Forsberg said. "I don't think it's any different now. I still want to play good, if (Crawford) is here or not. I'm trying to do my job as good as possible, same as before."

Edmonton (18-22-3) has dropped six of seven, including a 5-1 loss at Dallas on Saturday. The Oilers have been outscored 20-3 in their last five games.

"It's a humbling game," forward Milan Lucic said. "There are times we're on Cloud 9 and times where we're at the bottom of the barrel. I don't think the last two games, probably more so yesterday than today, was a lack of effort. It's just some minor mistakes that lead to big goals against."

Darnell Nurse's sharp-angled backhander trimmed Chicago's lead to 2-1 at 4:12 of the second. Jujhar Khaira got a look at the tying goal after Brent Seabrook's turnover with about six minutes left in the period, but Forsberg smothered his shot.

Chicago's top line of Vinnie Hinostroza, Toews and Saad then combined for a big play in the final seconds of the second. Hinostroza got the puck up to Toews, who muscled his way toward the net before shaking free for a shot that Saad deflected past Talbot at 19:50.

Oesterle added his third of the season midway through the third. Talbot finished with 25 saves.

"We got beat in a number of areas, so that combined with the confidence level we have right now is very poor timing," Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. "That didn't set us up for a lot of success in the third."

Chicago was coming off a disappointing 5-4 loss to expansion Vegas on Friday night, prompting coach Joel Quenneville to shuffle his lineup for the final game of the first half of the season. Defensemen Connor Murphy and Cody Franson were benched in favor of Michal Kempny and Jan Rutta, and John Hayden was a healthy scratch with Ryan Hartman returning from an upper-body injury.

The Blackhawks got off to a slow start against the Golden Knights and then blew a 4-3 lead in the third period. They were much better in the first against the Oilers.

Schmaltz jumped on a loose puck and slipped a backhand through Talbot's legs for a 1-0 lead at 8:03, extending his goal streak to three straight games with his 10th of the season. Chicago then caught a break when DeBrincat's centering pass went off the right skate of Edmonton forward Mark Letestu and past Talbot for the rookie's 14th goal at 9:29.

"It's huge, especially after last game," Saad said. "We weren't happy with the way we played. Moving on here today, we knew this was a big game against a good team. I think we played a pretty good 60 minutes."

NOTES: Oilers F Patrick Maroon returned to the lineup after serving a two-game suspension for a hit on Los Angeles D Drew Doughty on Tuesday. ... Quenneville had no update on Crawford and C Artem Anisimov, who also is out with an upper-body injury. Neither player has skated since they were placed on injured reserve.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Visit Nashville on Tuesday night.

Blackhawks: Visit Ottawa on Tuesday night.

Quick, Brown lead Kings to 5-0 win over Oilers

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- The Los Angeles Kings took advantage of a five-minute power play and rolled to a big win against a Pacific Division opponent.

Marian Gaborik, Dustin Brown and Adrian Kemp scored during the lengthy man advantage, and Jonathan Quick made 32 saves for his third shutout of the season to lead the Kings to a 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.

The Oilers got the power play after Oilers forward Patrick Maroon was given a major penalty for a hit to the head on Kings defenseman Drew Doughty late in the second period.

Brown said getting payback for the hit was a motivator.

"That's part of it, especially when it's probably our best player," Brown said. "But probably more so it's a divisional game and we can finish it in the first five minutes of the third period. And that's what we did.

"The power play hasn't been great for us this year, but you don't need a great power play, just a timely one."

Doughty left the game after the hit but was able to return in the third period.

"When stuff like that happens, your team just comes together, scoring three goals on the power play to really shove it up their butts was awesome," Doughty said.

"I'm feeling all right now. I didn't see it at all. He got me right in the head. I didn't have the puck, that's why I was so shocked by it. But I've known Maroon for a long time, he's just trying to finish a hit. I don't know that he meant to try and hurt me. I forgive him."

For his part, Maroon said there was no intent to injure on the play.

"I'm glad he came back and finished the game," Maroon said. "Honestly, I'm a big forward, just going in to do my job on the forecheck. My elbow didn't come up, it's just unfortunate that my body hit him in the head.

"I play the game hard. I'm just mad they gave me a match (penalty) and it hurt us."

Gaborik began the flurry by using a screen to rifle his eighth goal of the season past Talbot 1:36 into the third. They got another one four minutes into the third when Anze Kopitar's shot hit a defender on the way toward Talbot and was helped on its way into the net by Brown.

Los Angeles made it 4-0 with its third power-play goal shortly afterwards, as a shot that caromed off the glass had Talbot looking the wrong way, allowing Kempe to score a gift goal.

Brown added another goal with 1:32 remaining to cap the scoring. Andy Andreoff scored late in the second period for the Kings, who are 4-1-2 in their last seven games.

Cam Talbot stopped 28 shots as Edmonton lost its fourth straight while getting outscored 18-6 in that stretch.

The Kings had the bulk of the early chances before Edmonton started to pick up the pace later in the scoreless first period, with Quick making 14 saves, while Talbot made 12 stops.

Los Angeles finally broke the scoreless deadlock with 5:39 remaining in the second period on a 2-on-1 break as Torrey Mitchell fed Andreoff and he beat Talbot for just his second goal of the season.

Edmonton came close to tying it with 40 seconds left in the second, but Jesse Puljujarvi's shot rang off the post with a wide open net.

NOTES: Oilers F Connor McDavid has now gone three games without a point for the first time in his NHL career. ... It was the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. ... The Kings were without Jeff Carter (ankle) and Christian Folin (upper body).

UP NEXT

Kings: At Calgary on Thursday night.

Oilers: Host Anaheim on Thursday night.

Caggiula's last-minute goal lifts Oilers over Blues, 3-2

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- The Edmonton Oilers are beginning to make up for their early-season struggles.

Drake Caggiula scored with less than a minute remaining and Edmonton won its third straight game for the first time this season, beating the St. Louis Blues 3-2 on Thursday night.

Caggiula took a pass in front from behind the net by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and beat goalie Jake Allen with 49.8 seconds left. Michael Cammalleri and Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers (16-17-2), who have won four of their last five.

"Big win. We hadn't won three in a row yet this year, which is pretty remarkable. Nice to be able to do that," McDavid said. "It felt a lot like last year - the crowd was into it. We had a lot of opportunities tonight where we could have just folded our hand and gone to sleep. We didn't."

Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot won his sixth consecutive start and agreed that the team seems to be regaining its form.

"You go down by a goal twice against a team like that, a really good defensive team, and are able to battle back - the resiliency on this team right now is at a level that we saw last year," he said. "It is good to see it coming back. When we are playing with that kind of confidence, it is great to see from our group. Hopefully we can continue it."

Tage Thompson and Patrik Berglund scored for the Blues (22-13-2), who have lost three in a row and five of six.

"I thought we played the way we wanted to play, but I thought once we scored, then we totally played on our heels and it became a free-for-all game both ways," St. Louis forward Paul Stastny said. "It seems like whether we're up 1-0 or we're down 1-0, we completely change our game."

The Blues had the best chances in a scoreless first period, outshooting Edmonton 11-5. Edmonton had a good chance midway through the second, but a shot by Darnell Nurse hit a post and slid through the crease under a diving Allen to safety. It was the Oilers' fourth post of the game to that point.

The scoreless deadlock continued through 40 minutes with the shots favoring the Blues 26-19.

Stastny had a glorious opportunity seven minutes into the third when he stole the puck from Talbot behind the net, but the goalie made a desperate leap to prevent the wraparound attempt.

The Blues finally scored with 10:30 left in the third period as Thompson got a shot through traffic past Talbot for his first career goal.

Edmonton tied it 38 seconds later on a wrist shot by Cammalleri.

St. Louis regained the lead with 6:38 left when Berglund scored on a one-timer, but Edmonton tied it again as McDavid waited for Allen to go down before lifting in his 13th goal of the season with 3:41 left.

NOTES: It was the last of three meetings between the teams this season. The Blues won the two previous games by a combined score of 12-4. ... D Andrej Sekera made his season debut for the Oilers, playing for the first time since going down with a knee injury in his team's second-round playoff series against Anaheim last season.

UP NEXT

The Oilers host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

The Blues visit the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Oilers hit milestone in win over Sharks

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Ryan Strome potted two goals, including the 10,000th the Oilers have scored in the NHL, leading Edmonton to a 5-3 win Monday over the San Jose Sharks.

Patrick Maroon scored what would eventually become the winning goal. But his slapper over the shoulder of Sharks netminder Martin Jones won't be his most watched highlight of the game. Late in the second period, with the teams in a scrum, Maroon ended up face-to-face with Sharks defenseman Brent Burns, owner of the most famous beard in the NHL. In front of a full house at Rogers Place, Maroon gave Burns' beard a tug.

"I do some crazy stuff sometimes," said Maroon. "I was laughing about it and he was laughing about it. I thought he would be mad at first, but he just asked me if I liked it and I said 'yeah, it's a pretty nice beard.' It was just in my face and I decided to pull it."

"It happens more than you think," Burns said of having his beard yanked. "It wasn't really a tug, he was just kind of petting it. ... I kinda fell there, he kind of fell on top, he was just asking, I don't know, I think it was like 'are we all right?' It's a nice beard."

The game marked the first game between the Sharks and Oilers since the teams collided in the first round of the 2017 playoffs, with Edmonton winning that series in six games.

Oilers goalie Cam Talbot won his second in a row since returning from a stint on injured reserve, making 18 saves. Jones remained stuck on 99 career wins. The Oilers got 29 shots on goal.

The Sharks took the lead at 6:15 of the first period. On the power play, Joe Pavelski wristed home a rebound off a point shot from Kevin Labanc.

The Oilers tied it at 14:42, as Mark Letestu one-timed a pass from Leon Draisaitl.

Edmonton took the lead with 1:09 left in the period, thanks to a tic-tac-toe passing play, with Jujhar Khaira feeding Draisaitl, who pushed the puck across the goalmouth for Ryan Strome to put in past a helpless Jones.

Strome's goal was the 10,000th for the Oilers since the team joined the NHL in 1979. But a disclaimer: That total includes 65 shootout winners.

"It's kind of cool, but Leon deserves credit for that goal," said Strome. "I just had my stick on the ice and he hit it. It was unbelievable. It's a cool accomplishment, especially with the rich history of this team. But I was the beneficiary of a hell of a pass there."

Six minutes into the second, the Oilers had a series of great chances to extend the lead, but Jones robbed Jesse Puljujarvi twice and then stoned Connor McDavid for good measure in a frantic 10-second sequence. But while Jones closed the door on the Oilers, he couldn't stop his own team. On the next shift, he was beaten by his teammate, Pavelski, who inadvertently tipped in what was meant to be a centering attempt from Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Tomas Hertl made it 3-2 at 8:32.

Maroon got the Oilers their two-goal lead back, making it 4-2 at 8:23 of the third with a blast over Jones's shoulder. But Marcus Sorensen made it a nail-biter at 11:58, as he was able to wrap the puck around Talbot's outstretched pad. With Sorensen's goal, Maroon's marker became the game winner.

Strome got an empty netter with 7.6 seconds left.

Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said it was frustrating that his team did such a good job on reigning MVP McDavid, holding him pointless, but were badly outplayed by the other lines.

"We're not as tight defensively as we have been, we've also got some guys out of the lineup who weren't out earlier in the year, too," he said. "I think we did a good job on McDavid tonight. I thought the difference in the game was the depth, they got some more depth scoring than we did. ... Other guys have got to get up and get the job done, and they didn't tonight. The fourth line got pinned in their own zone for extended periods to the point where we couldn't really play them. And then you overuse other guys, and you've got to find a way."

NOTES: Sharks C Logan Couture was out with a concussion suffered in Friday's overtime loss to Vancouver; he leads the Sharks with 15 goals and 26 points. ... The Sharks moved LW Mikkel Boedker from injured reserve to the roster ahead of Monday's game. Boedker hadn't played since Dec. 1. ... Edmonton activated D Adam Larsson from injured reserve before the game. Larsson had been out since Nov. 30. ... To make room for Larsson, RW Anton Slepyshev was assigned to the Oilers' AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif. ... The Oilers scratched D Eric Gryba, D Yohann Auvitu and LW Mike Cammalleri. ... The Sharks scratched D Paul Martin and RW Jannik Hansen.

Predators blank Oilers behind Saros

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers dominated the Nashville Predators everywhere but on the scoreboard Thursday.

They outshot Nashville 22-4 in the first period. They were up 33-13 in shots at the end of the second. It should have been a blowout.

But in a bizarre 60 minutes at Rogers Place, the Oilers were the guys who wound up getting blown out in a 4-0 loss to the Central Division-leading Predators.

Backup goaltender Juuse Saros stole the show. The 22-year-old, starting in place of Pekka Rinne, stopped 46 shots for his third victory of the season.

It is the most saves an opposition goalie has ever made in a shutout win against the Oilers.

"I don't think we were quite ready in the first and we needed some goaltending," understated Predators head coach Peter Laviolette. "In the first period when you get outshot 22-4 and you walk into the room with the game still tied 0-0, you are thankful that you're goalie was ready to play and was able to give you an opportunity to win a hockey game. Without him playing the way he did in the first period, we don't have a chance."

Saros settled things down long enough for Pontus Aberg, Kevin Fiala, Kyle Turris and Roman Josi to score second-period goals on Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit.

"I like to see a lot of pucks," said Saros, who didn't mind the workload. "You don't think as much and you just go with the flow. It's a good way to get into the game. I like to get a lot of shots. I like those kind of games."

The Oilers were in stunned silence afterward, struggling to come to grips with how badly they'd just been robbed.

"I don't think it's fair, this game," said Edmonton winger Patrick Maroon. "I've been around the game for a long time now and it's a weird, weird game. You're going to go through times where you shouldn't win, but you do. And you're going to go through times when you should have won by a lot and don't win."

And Thursday was definitely the latter, in their opinion.

"Other than the result we outplayed them in every aspect of the game," said winger Milan Lucic, who still likes the way the 14th-place Oilers have been playing lately. "We know the reality of the spot we're in but our game, especially in the last four games, is trending in the right way. We have to build on that more than the loss here tonight."

It was scoreless after the first 20 minutes thanks to Saros, but the Predators took over for good in the second.

Aberg scored on their first shot of the second period and their fifth of the game. Fiala made it 2-0 on their seventh shot, Turris made it 3-0 on their 11th and Josi made it 4-0 on their 13th.

The Predators continue to steamroll the rest of the NHL. They are 15-2-2 in their last 19 games and 20-7-4 overall.

"We just really capitalized on our chances tonight, especially in the second," said Josi. "We got a couple chances and found a way to score. We didn't play our best game, but we found a way to score timely goals and to win the game. That speaks well for our team."

It's been a maddening stretch for the Oilers (13-17-2). In their last four games, they have shelled two of the best goalies in the NHL, putting up 13 goals in chasing Montreal's Carey Price and Columbus's Sergei Bobrovsky, but have been stymied by a pair of backups in Saros and Toronto's Curtis McElhinney, who beat them 1-0.

"It was a little bit of that Toronto feeling again," said Edmonton defenseman Oscar Klefbom. "We couldn't get the first one. It doesn't matter if we let in one goal or eight goals if we don't score the first one.

"We have to get the first one. This is not going to be the last time we face a good goalie."

NOTES: Oilers G Cam Talbot, who has been out six games with a lower-body injury, is now days away from a return. He expects to be in one of the next two games. ... Nashville G Pekka Rinne is 9-0-0 with three shutouts in his last nine games against Edmonton, but sat out Thursday because he played Wednesday. ... Predators C Ryan Johansen saw his four-game point scoring streak against the Oilers come to an end. ... The Predators are 12-2-2 since Kyle Turris joined the team. ... Oilers D Adam Larsson, who's been out more than a week with an upper-body injury, is now practicing with the team and expects to be back by the weekend. ... The Oilers have only won back-to-back games twice in the first 32 games of the season. ... Nashville has only lost five games in regulation since dropping the first two contests of the regular season. ... The Oilers have won only five of their first 15 games at home this season.

Oilers rout Blue Jackets, 7-2

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Edmonton Oilers have been trying to find themselves after a disappointing first two months of the season and their game might be starting to come around.

The Oilers capped a 2-1 road trip with a convincing 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.

Mark Letestu scored a short-handed goal and had an assist, and Connor McDavid energized the Oilers with a goal and three assists to lead the assault against the Blue Jackets, who are tied for first place the Metropolitan Division.

The Oilers (13-16-2) started their trip with a similar performance -- a 6-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens -- and then lost 1-0 to the Maple Leafs in Toronto despite unleashing 41 shots.

"You hope it confirms they're turning the corner and putting some things together," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "We're stringing good games together. It's been a goal of ours for a while and I think we did that on the trip.

"I was concerned today because we didn't get the reward in Toronto. Sometimes a team that hasn't won enough can sag, but we responded emotionally and were prepared to play."

Edmonton wasn't expected to be mired near the bottom of the Pacific Division standings after finishing last season as one of the best teams in the Western Conference. But they're starting to see positive signs, particularly from McDavid.

After battling illness during the early part of the season, McDavid is looking more like his superstar self. He assisted on two second-period goals and capped the evening with another assist and then the final goal of the game.

"Three solid games in a row now," said McDavid, whose has a team-leading 39 points. "We can definitely feel good about that."

But McDavid wants to see more consistency from the Oilers, who are 6-5 in their last 11 games. Their recent pattern has been to follow a win with a loss.

"We've had streaks where we've been alright," McDavid said. "We need to see it more. We need to see three, four, five, six (good games). We don't have many games to give away anymore."

The Oilers pounced on the Blue Jackets and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. They jumped ahead in the first period with a goal from Zack Kassian and the lead ballooned to 5-0 in the second with a four-goal onslaught.

"We knew we had to get that goalie early," Letestu said. "When (Bobrovsky) feels the puck early and settles in, he's really tough to beat. It was good to get up a good start."

Two of the second-period goals came from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Milan Lucic on power plays. Matt Benning scored at even strength, and Letestu's second short-handed goal of the season beat Bobrovsky with 0.3 of a second left in the period on a breakaway.

"We were sloppy with the puck," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "It was just a lack of focus we had tonight that we normally have. It's disappointing. We haven't been beat like that all year. We obviously played into their hands big time and we didn't do much to generate anything."

Jesse Puljujarvi and McDavid capped the Oilers' explosive offensive night with third-period goals.

Oliver Bjorkstrand ended Laurent Brossoit's shutout bid at 6:28 of the third period, and Jack Johnson added the other goal for the Blue Jackets (19-11-1).

"It started to unravel for us real quick," Johnson said. "You're in a deep hole. We tried to push it in the third period and you open yourself up."

Brossoit finished with 28 saves to post just his third victory of the season while starting his seventh straight game in place of injured goaltender Cam Talbot.

"Maybe it's our time right now," McLellan said. "You go through dry spells and sometimes you score a lot. Right now, we're finding the net."

The Blue Jackets left Bobrovsky out to dry with defensive breakdowns and turnovers. He was pulled after two periods, having stopped just 21 of 26 shots. Backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo gave up two goals and made 10 saves in the third period for the Blue Jackets, whose two-game winning streak ended.

Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella respectfully refused to be interviewed after the blowout loss.

"There's no sense in me evening trying to answer questions about this evening," he said. "So sorry about that. Have a good night."

NOTES: Oilers C Connor McDavid has 16 points in his last 11 games. ... Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky leads the NHL in shutouts with four after he blanked the Arizona Coyotes 1-0 on Saturday night. ... Blue Jackets D Ryan Murray missed his seventh consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ... Oilers LW Anton Slepyshev returned to the lineup after being scratched for four games. He replaced LW Drake Caggiula. ... Blue Jackets LW Cam Atkinson was back in the lineup after sitting out the Saturday night game as a healthy scratch. The team's leading scorer the past two seasons had no points in the previous six games. ... Oilers C Mark Letestu, who reached 200 career points with an assist on Saturday against Montreal, has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past seven games.

Flyers top Oilers for second straight win

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Philadelphia Flyers came to Alberta knowing they needed to do whatever was necessary to win. They certainly weren't entertaining, but they were effective, winning two in row.

After breaking a 10-game losing skid with a win over the Flames in Calgary on Monday, the Flyers continued their turnaround with a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Weal, Dale Weise and Michael Raffl also scored for Philadelphia, which was on an 0-5-5 run before Monday. Goalie Brian Elliott made 23 saves for the Flyers (10-11-7).

Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got the goals for the Oilers (11-15-2). Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit, who gave up five goals in his most recent start prior to Wednesday, stopped 29 shots.

The Flyers held the Oilers to just 25 shots in what was a grinding sort of game. Philadelphia got a breakaway marker, and the Oilers scored on an odd-man rush, but for the most part, shots came from the outside and Elliott wasn't called upon to make an outstanding save until the third period.

Elliott said boring, winning hockey is just fine with him.

"We talked about it. These aren't our fans out here, we don't have to entertain them," he said. "We just have to come away with the two points. We are playing that good road-style hockey when you have nothing, you have to get it in deep and live to fight another day, and I think our guys are really buying into that right now."

Brossoit started well, stopping all the shots he faced in the first period as the Flyers outshot the home team 13-7.

The Oilers opened the scoring at 3:41 of the second period. With Edmonton short-handed, Connor McDavid and Draisaitl stormed up the ice on a two-on-one break. McDavid slipped a backhand pass to Draisaitl, and the German got the puck past Elliott before the goalie could get his pad across to stop the shot.

Philadelphia responded on its fourth power-play of the game, scoring on its 22nd shot on Brossoit. Weal was on the doorstep to tip home a pass from Sean Couturier at 8:53 of the middle period.

Oilers defenseman Matthew Benning admitted it was a backbreaker to give up a power-play goal so soon after scoring a short-handed marker, and he took the blame for the defensive breakdown.

"I thought our penalty kill did a good job, and the one they scored, I've got to get in that stick lane and take that pass away," Benning said.

Weal had a different perspective on the goal.

"That felt good, it's been a long time coming," Weal said. "It's not been for a lack of hard work and creating chances. It's nice when you can get out with special players like that and I was able to find a good spot and (Couturier) made a good play to find me."

The Flyers then scored on shot No. 24. Weise's 25-footer trickled through Brossoit's legs at 14:45 of the second.

"I battled hard," said Brossoit, who has given up five goals or more in four of his nine appearances this season. "There were a lot of improvements, a couple of things that I wanted to make sure I did tonight, and did.

"Having said that, I want to give a little bit more. Maybe if that second goal was eliminated, it would eliminate some of the pressure on our forwards. In hindsight, things like that are what I want to eliminate from my game. There were a lot of good things I felt I did out there, but the win is priority number one."

Weise said, "It definitely feels good, definitely the way we played, too, it's a pretty complete effort from our team. Getting contributions from everyone, it's going to be huge if we want to keep stringing some wins together."

Just 10 seconds into the third period, the Oilers stormed into the Flyers' zone, and defenseman Darnell Nurse clanged a shot off the crossbar.

At 4:06, Raffl was sent off on a breakaway thanks to a great defense-breaking pass from Jakub Voracek, and he put the puck over Brossoit's glove to make it 3-1.

Nugent-Hopkins made it close with 6:40 left on the clock, banging home a rebound from a Patrick Maroon shot. McDavid had a great chance to tie the game with two minutes left, but Elliott made a save after the Oilers star dashed around two Flyers.

Simmonds got an empty-netter with 39 seconds left to seal the game.

NOTES: The Flyers and Oilers wrapped up their season series. The Flyers beat the Oilers 2-1 in Philadelphia in October. ... The Flyers placed D Brandon Manning and G Michal Neuvirth on injured reserve hours before the game, and they recalled D TJ Brennan and G Alex Lyon from their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. ... Brennan was a healthy scratch along with C Jori Lehtera, while Lyon backed up starter Brian Elliott. ... Oilers G Cam Talbot, currently on injured reserve, is expected to start skating later this week. ... The Oilers scratched D Brandon Davidson and LW Nathan Walker, who were both acquired on the waiver wire earlier this week. Also scratched was LW Anton Slepyshev.

GAME SUMS

First Period-None. Penalties-Benning, EDM, (holding), 3:33; Draisaitl, EDM, (interference), 12:43.
Second Period-1, Edmonton, Draisaitl 8 (McDavid), 3:41 (sh). 2, Philadelphia, Weal 3 (Giroux, Couturier), 8:53 (pp). 3, Philadelphia, Weise 3 (Simmonds, Giroux), 14:45. Penalties-Maroon, EDM, (interference), 2:08; Sanheim, PHI, (tripping), 5:11; Klefbom, EDM, (interference), 7:49.
Third Period-4, Philadelphia, Raffl 4 (Voracek), 4:06. 5, Edmonton, Nugent-Hopkins 11 (Maroon, Cammalleri), 13:20. 6, Philadelphia, Simmonds 9 (Filppula, Provorov), 19:21. Penalties-Laughton, PHI, (holding), 16:17.
Shots on Goal-Philadelphia 13-13-7-33. Edmonton 7-9-10-26.
Power-play opportunities-Philadelphia 1 of 4; Edmonton 0 of 2.
Goalies-Philadelphia, Elliott 8-6-6 (25 shots-23 saves). Edmonton, Brossoit 1-5-1 (32-29).
A-18,347 (18,641). T-2:29.
Referees-Trevor Hanson, Dave Jackson. Linesmen-Brian Mach, Kiel Murchison.

Russell hands Maple Leafs winner in 6-4 victory over Oilers

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Thanks to Kris Russell’s embarrassing mistake, Patrick Marleau wound up with one of the easiest goals of his career Thursday night.

It was a big one, too.

Russell accidentally fired the puck into his own net late in the third period, handing the Toronto Maple Leafs the go-ahead goal in a 6-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Skating toward the net, Marleau was credited with the winner after Russell’s gaffe with 1:05 remaining.

Following the game, the Oilers defenseman could do little more than shake his head.

“It was a bounce. I turned to try and battle it out and obviously you know what happened,” Russell said. “I thought we came back and played well, but I’m pretty frustrated with the way it ended.”

William Nylander had a goal and two assists for Toronto, and Frederik Andersen stopped 41 shots. Auston Matthews, Dominic Moore, Matt Martin and Nazem Kadri also scored for the Maple Leafs (17-9-1).

As he battled with Kadri for a bouncing puck in the lower part of the faceoff circle, Russell spun around and tried to clear toward the corner, out of harm’s way. Instead, he smacked the puck right through the legs of Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit.

When he saw it go in, a dejected Russell slumped his shoulders and bent over at the knees.

“I’m feeling for him right now,” Kadri said. “They did a great job; they earned themselves at least a point in that one and came up a little bit short. Tough bounce, but that’s the way it’s going for us right now. We continued that.”

Russell had tied the score for Edmonton early in the third. Mark Letestu, Zack Kassian and Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers (10-14-2), who won their previous two games.

Brossoit started in place of injured Cam Talbot, expected to miss at least the next two weeks. Brossoit made 30 saves.

“It was obviously an unfortunate way to end it,” McDavid said. “I think everyone would have wanted overtime — it would have been entertaining. It’s just the way it goes.”

The Maple Leafs scored on their first shot 2:15 into the game when Nylander made a great feed on the power play to set up Matthews for his 13th goal of the season.

Toronto made it 2-0 six minutes into the opening period when Moore beat Brossoit to the stick side with a wrist shot.

The Oilers got back into the game with seven minutes left in the first on a goal by Letestu, but the Maple Leafs responded just 29 seconds later as a turnover at the blue line led to Martin being left alone at the side of the net to score his second of the season.

Edmonton made it a one-goal game again 6 1/2 minutes into the second period as Jujhar Khaira made a nice backhand feed from behind the net to Kassian, who scored his second of the season in as many games.

The Oilers tied it late in the second period when McDavid tipped Russell’s point shot past Andersen.

Toronto moved back in front less than a minute later on a power-play goal by Nylander. Edmonton evened it again three minutes into the third as Russell scored on a drive from the point.

Kadri added an empty-netter with a second left.

“That was a good game. It was fun,” Nylander said. “Two great fan bases in a great building, a good, high-scoring game. It’s cool to be a part of those games. There was a lot going on.”

NOTES: Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson was a surprise scratch with an upper-body injury after participating in pregame warmups.

UP NEXT

Maple Leafs: At the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Oilers: At the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

Oilers place Talbot on injured reserve

Goaltender Cam Talbot was placed on injured reserve by the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday with an upper-body injury.

Talbot was injured during a 3-2 overtime win to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday, Oilers coach Todd McLellan said Wednesday. Talbot finished the game and made 29 saves.

Talbot is 10-10-1 with a 3.00 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in 22 games, all starts. He finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting last season after leading the NHL with 44 victories and 73 appearances, finishing with a 2.39 GAA.

He is eligible to return on Dec. 7.

The Oilers (10-13-2) are seventh in the Pacific Division after advancing to the Western Conference Second Round last season. They play the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, SNW, TSN4).

Edmonton called up goaltender Nick Ellis from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. Ellis, 23, is 5-5-1 with a 2.82 GAA and .914 save percentage in 11 games.

Nugent-Hopkins stars in OT as Oilers edge Coyotes 3-2

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Not a lot has gone right for the Edmonton Oilers this season, but they caught a couple of breaks on Tuesday night.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored 4:20 into overtime as the Oilers defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 for their second win in a row. The Coyotes had the best chances in overtime, ringing two shots off the crossbar, but a late turnover led to Nugent-Hopkins getting a breakaway and scoring his ninth goal of the season.

“I had to come up with a couple of big saves there and got lucky a couple of times off the post, but those are the bounces that haven’t been going our way so it’s nice to get a couple of those,” said Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, who made 29 saves, four in overtime. “I think we definitely have to build off it, but we can’t get too complacent.

“After we string a win or two together we seem to come out in the next game a little flat. We have to build off this and come out strong next game and build off that momentum moving forward.”

Zack Kassian and Matt Benning also scored for the Oilers, who have only won two straight games on one other occasion all season.

“It’s nice for our confidence right now,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “In each of our last two games we came back from being down a goal. We are showing a lot more fight, a lot more resilience right now. It should go a long way for our team.”

Christian Fischer and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Coyotes, who have lost three of their last four games.

“Their three goals were just breakdowns,” Fischer said. “I think for the most part we probably out-chanced them and limited their top guys. But three-on-three is anybody’s game and it all it takes is one bad bounce or a missed shot wide. We got a point and we move on and go to Calgary.”

Fischer showed a great second effort to lift his own rebound over outstretched Oilers goalie Cam Talbot during a scramble in front to give Arizona an early lead. It was the 17th time in 25 games this season that Edmonton has trailed 1-0.

Kassian finally converted on one of many breakaways this season, beating Coyotes goalie Scott Wedgewood for his first goal of the campaign to tie the game 1-1 with 3:30 left in the first.

Arizona regained the lead with 49 seconds left in the second period as Ekman-Larsson’s power-play point blast beat Talbot.

Benning’s shot hit a defender in front and deflected into the Arizona net to send the game to extra time with 5:35 left in the third period.

The Coyotes had the best chances in overtime, ringing two shots off the crossbar, but a late turnover led to Nugent-Hopkins getting a breakaway and scoring his ninth goal of the season.

Notes: It was the first of four meetings between the teams this season, with the next coming on Jan. 12 in Arizona. . With four wins in their six games before facing Edmonton, the Coyotes had won more in that stretch than in their first 20 games. They had also won three straight on the road. . Although it was just the 10th NHL game of his career, it was the second time Arizona’s Dylan Strome had played in a game against older brother Ryan, a forward with the Oilers. . Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson suffered an upper-body injury and did not return.

UP NEXT:

Coyotes: are at Calgary on Thursday.

Oilers: host Toronto on Thursday.

Ryan Strome breaks tie, Oilers beat Bruins 4-2

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers headed home trying to build on a big victory.

Ryan Strome broke a tie early in the third period and Cam Talbot made 23 saves in the Oilers’ 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday night.

“I don’t know why we make life so hard on ourselves,” Strome said. “The challenge is consistency and hopefully we can find that here.”

Edmonton has the second worst record in the Western Conference and has won consecutive games only once this season.

“We finished the trip off the way we wanted to,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “We have to break the spell now and put two together.”

Strome scored 2:07 into the third when he took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and wristed a shot from point blank range over goalie Tuukka Rask’s shoulder.

Draisaitl added an empty-netter with 51 seconds remaining. The Oilers won for the second time in six games and beat Boston for the sixth straight time after dropping the previous 13.

“You hope that guys can gain some confidence,” Oilers forward Milan Lucic said.

Patrick Maroon and Adam Larsson also scored for the Oilers.

David Pastrnak and David Krejci scored for Boston. Rask stopped 32 shots in his first appearance in five games after backup Anton Khudobin had led the Bruins to four straight victories.

“He (Rask) played well but we only scored two goals,” Pastrnak said. “It’s hard to score goals when we don’t shoot enough and we just didn’t do all the things we have done during our four wins.”

Krejci converted a feed from Riley Nash to tie it at 2 with 4:29 remaining in the second period.

Maroon and Larsson scored less than five minutes apart midway through the second period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

Pastrnak had a power-play goal at 14:03 of the first to snap Boston’s 0-for-17 drought with the man advantage.

“We lacked energy and I couldn’t kick start us,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got the early power-play goal but couldn’t extend the lead and that’s disappointing playing at home.” Rask made 32 saves but has dropped four straight.

NOTES: Talbot won his second consecutive start for Edmonton after allowing 10 goals in his previous two starts. ... Torey Krug had two assists for Boston. ... Boston lost for the first time in six tries with both Krejci and Patrice Bergeron in the lineup. ... Talbot and Klefbom returned to the lineup after missing the previous game with the flu.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Host Arizona on Monday night.

Bruins: Host Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.

Tarasenko nets 2, gets in rare fight as Blues top Oilers 8-3

By WARREN MAYES
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Vladimir Tarasenko dropped his gloves and inspired his teammates.

On a night when he had two goals and two assists , Tarasenko got in a rare fight Tuesday during the St. Louis Blues’ 8-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Brayden Schenn also had two goals and two assists, and Jake Allen stopped 26 shots for the NHL-leading Blues (16-5-1).

Tarasenko’s fight came in the second period. In just the third scrap of his six-year career, the skilled forward tangled with Matt Benning and landed a solid right hand much to the crowd’s delight.

Tarasenko looked good out there, too.

“Yeah, a couple of boxing lessons,” he quipped. “It’s part of the game and I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Tarasenko was reacting to Benning’s near-collision with Schenn that was almost a knee-on-knee hit.

“I don’t fight really often but I think that was on purpose, knee on knee,” Tarasenko said . “I don’t like that kind of stuff in hockey. I don’t want to look like a good fighter but, you know, it happens sometimes.”

Schenn took the blame for the play.

“That was my fault coming through the middle with my head down,” he said. “I picked it up at the last second. Maybe I’m lucky it wasn’t a bigger defenseman trying to hit me.

“Hats off to him. We don’t need that guy fighting. I guess he decided to drop the mitts. He looked at it from a team perspective and he’s willing to stand up for his teammates. That goes a long way. When you see our best playing doing that, it makes everyone want to do that.”

Blues coach Mike Yeo held his breath during the fight.

“We don’t want Vladdy getting into fights, but he sent a message there,” Yeo said. “If you saw the way the bench got up ... I could hear what they were saying.

“It is what it is but again, you don’t want a guy like him fighting and he breaks his hand. He did pretty well. He’s so strong. But again, that’s not what we want him doing.”

It was Tarasenko’s second career Gordie Howe hat trick — a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. The other one came on Nov. 13, 2014, against Nashville.

St. Louis scored two goals in each of the first two periods before adding four in a wide-open third.

Tarasenko got his 11th goal 3:16 into the first period on two deflections. Shooting from the slot, he scored when his shot hit Connor McDavid’s stick and then Adam Larsson’s stick for a 1-0 lead.

Tarasenko has 14 points in his last 13 games (nine goals, five assists) against the Oilers.

The Blues made it 2-0 when Dmitrij Jaskin scored at 7:35. He outmuscled Ryan Strome for the puck in the right circle and hit a rising wrist shot threw sailed over Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot’s left shoulder.

The Oilers pulled Talbot, who faced just three shots, in favor of Lauren Brossoit. It was the third time this season Talbot, who has started 105 of Edmonton’s last 116 games, has been pulled.

Brossoit faced 37 shots and allowed six goals.

St. Louis went up 3-0 when Jaden Schwartz knocked in the rebound of a shot by Tarasenko. Brossoit kicked out Tarasenko’s shot and it went right to Schwartz, who snapped in a wrist shot from the high slot at 3:52 of the second.

It was the 100th career goal for Schwartz, who had three points.

“Good to hit it but obviously I want to get a lot more,” Schwartz said. “It’s exciting. I never imagined doing that as a young kid.”

A goal by Schenn from the slot made it 4-0 with 19 seconds left in the period. Schwartz fed Schenn with a pass and he one-timed the puck by Brossoit.

Edmonton cut it to 4-1 when Milan Lucic scored at 6:09 of the third. St. Louis got the goal back when Scottie Upshall scored from just outside the crease on a pass from Chris Thorburn at 7:39.

Tarasenko added his second goal at 12:21 for a 6-1 lead. Schenn scored on a power play at 14:37.

After Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton, the Blues responded with a goal by Paul Stastny.

Darnell Nurse scored the Oilers’ final goal.

“The game was indefensible on my behalf,” Edmonton coach Todd McClellan said. “In every facet of the game, we were second. It wasn’t even close and I’m very, very concerned obviously the way some individuals played tonight.

“That’s about as poor as I’ve seen our group of defensemen play in my three years here.”

NOTES: Veteran defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, a two-time All-Star, played his first game of the season for the Blues. He broke his left ankle when he was hit by a puck on the third day of training camp in September. ... McDavid played after missing practice Monday with flu-like symptoms. ... With Bouwmeester back, D Carl Gunnarsson was a healthy scratch for the Blues. ... St. Louis is 10-2 in its last 12 games at home. ... Edmonton is 1-5 in its last six games. The Oilers are 3-9 in their past 12 on the road, losing four straight away from home.

UP NEXT

Oilers: At the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.

Blues: Host the Nashville Predators on Friday.

Dumont, Paigin on waivers

Gabriel Dumont of the Tampa Bay Lightning was placed on waivers, and Ziyat Paigin of the Edmonton Oilers was placed on unconditional waivers on Monday.

NHL Insider Ellotte Freidman tweeted that he was curious about the movement of Paigin because Freidman read some positive things about Paigin in preseason. Freidman was given a reason forthe transaction; that Paigin "wasn't working out for a number of reasons on both sides."

As for Dumont, he has posted no goals or assists in seven games with the Lightning this season. He will likely go to Syracuse of the AHL if he clears.

- Joey Gucciardo

Schenn scores twice, has assist to help Blues beat Oilers

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Being traded to the St. Louis Blues has worked out very well for Brayden Schenn thus far.

Schenn had two goals and an assist and the Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on Thursday night to end a two-game skid.

The 26-year-old center is having a career year since being traded last summer from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Blues, with 25 points through 20 games.

“I’ve got a good opportunity to play with good players in all situations,” said Schenn, whose previous best season was in 2015-2016, when he had 59 points in 80 games. “Whether the Blues are more my style of hockey or whatever, it has been a lot of fun so far. We have a good team here, and it’s been fun being a part of this organization. I’ve got a lot of confidence right now.”

Vladimir Sobotka and Alexander Steen also scored for the Blues, who improved to 14-5-1 with the win in a physical matchup. Jake Allen made 29 saves.

“I thought we played a mature game and controlled our emotions well,” Steen said. “It’s easy to get carried away when things are getting ramped up, but I thought we did a good job of keeping our composure and sticking to the game plan.”

Ryan Strome scored for the Oilers, who have lost three of four. Cam Talbot turned away 35 shots.

“They were better than us in a lot of areas tonight,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “It was spread out amongst the team. It was a team loss tonight, we just didn’t play well.”

The Blues caught a break to start the scoring with 4:46 left in the first period. Talbot flubbed a clearing attempt, and it popped in front of the net, enabling Sobotka to get a short-handed goal.

Edmonton got the goal back on the same power play 29 seconds later when Strome’s wrist shot beat Allen up high.

St. Louis regained the lead on the power play seven minutes into the second period when Steen whacked in a rebound during a scramble in the crease.

The Blues took a 3-1 lead six minutes into the third when Schenn elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 break, scoring his sixth goal of the season.

Schenn got his second goal of the game a couple of minutes later when he was left alone at the side of the net and had an open net to shoot at before Talbot could get across.

NOTES: It was the first meeting of the season between the two teams, who will play again on Tuesday in St. Louis. ... F Mike Cammalleri played his first game with the Oilers after being acquired from the Kings on Tuesday in a deal for Jussi Jokinen. Thursday marked 15 years to the day that Cammalleri scored his first NHL goal, in Edmonton against the Oilers.

UP NEXT

Blues: At Vancouver on Saturday night.

Oilers: At Dallas on Saturday.

Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid each score 2 as Oilers top Vegas 8-2

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers finally found their scoring touch.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid each had two goals for the Oilers in their 8-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.

Edmonton entered with the fewest goals in the NHL.

“It is definitely good for the confidence of the group,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We kind of put everything together tonight and things went well for us. We can’t get away from that now.”

Oscar Klefbom, Patrick Maroon, Matt Benning and Mark Letestu also scored for the Oilers, who snapped a two-game skid.

“We’ve had a lot of tight, one-goal games,” Klefbom said. “It’s nice to see some of the players who usually don’t score a lot get some points tonight. I heard that 13 guys had at least a point for us tonight. It was a huge game for us.”

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and James Neal had the goals for the expansion Golden Knights, who have lost three of four.

“Everything went wrong tonight. We weren’t skating, we gave them too many odd-man rushes, and they’re a talented team and they take advantage of that,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “Right from the start it wasn’t a good game for us. I thought we got a little better in the second, but it was a bad game overall.”

Edmonton got off to a good start with a short-handed goal 6½ minutes into the first period when Klefbom converted a 2-on-1 pass from Jujhar Khaira to beat Vegas goalie Maxime Lagace.

The Oilers made it 2-0 on the power play with just more than two minutes left in the opening period as Maroon fed the puck from behind the net to Nugent-Hopkins, who scored his seventh of the season.

Maroon got a goal of his own 57 seconds later, beating Lagace up high on a shot from the slot.

Edmonton padded its lead midway through the second when Benning redirected Klefbom’s shot, which appeared to catch Lagace by surprise.

The Golden Knights got on the board with five minutes left in the second as Bellemare tucked a shot over the shoulder of Oilers goalie Cam Talbot.

Edmonton started the third on a power play and had a goal credited to McDavid after Vegas’ Deryk Engelland inadvertently swatted the puck into his own net.

The Golden Knights got that one back shortly afterward when Neal scored his 10th of the season.

McDavid scored his second of the game and ninth of the season five minutes into the third.

Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers seven goals for the first time this season with his eighth midway through the third before Letestu scored late to make it 8-2.

“Tonight a lot of guys got rewarded, and it was a little more relaxed on the bench,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “A little bit of fun in the game, and we haven’t had that in a while.”

Lagace was replaced in the third period by 19-year-old rookie Dylan Ferguson, the fifth goalie to play for the Golden Knights (10-6-1) in their first 17 games.

NOTES: It was the first meeting between the teams, which will face each other three more times this season. Their next game is at Vegas on Jan. 13, which is McDavid’s 21st birthday. ... Edmonton made a trade before the game, dealing forward Jussi Jokinen to the Los Angeles Kings for center Mike Cammalleri.

UP NEXT

Golden Knights: At the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.

Oilers: Host the St. Louis Blues.

Oilers get Mike Cammalleri from Kings for Jussi Jokinen

By GREG BEACHAM
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings traded Mike Cammalleri to the Edmonton Oilers for Jussi Jokinen in a swap of veteran forwards on Tuesday night.

Cammalleri’s second career stint with the Kings lasted just 15 games. After signing a $1 million, one-year deal last summer to return to the club that drafted him in 2001, the 35-year-old veteran found himself stuck in a depth role early in the season, even sitting as a scratch for two games.

Cammalleri has three goals and four assists this season, his 15th NHL campaign. He has scored at least 19 goals in nine of those seasons.

“I don’t think he enjoyed the role that he was in, by any means,” said Kings general manager Rob Blake, who declined to say whether Cammalleri requested a trade. “I won’t tell you a lot about our conversation, but what I will tell you is we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going the direction he wanted it to.”

The 34-year-old Jokinen has one assist in 14 games with Edmonton this season after signing a one-year deal as a free agent in July. The steady veteran is joining his seventh NHL franchise with the Kings, who expect to use him as a depth forward with faceoff skills and a solid two-way game.

“He’s been a very reliable player over his career, and I think that will bring a little stability to our lineup,” Blake said. “He can do a lot of different things for us.”

The Pacific Division-leading Kings are off to a strong start despite the injury absences of goal-scoring veteran Marian Gaborik and top scorer Jeff Carter, who will be out for several months while recovering from a cut on his leg.

Captain Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are enjoying remarkable bounce-back offensive seasons while skating on Los Angeles’ top line along with speedy rookie Alex Iafallo, who surprised the team by winning an NHL roster spot in training camp and keeping it with steady play. Iafallo’s emergence contributed directly to Cammalleri’s reduced role, Blake said.

Iafallo and fellow youngster Adrian Kempe have secured regular roles while the Kings are off to one of the Western Conference’s best starts even without Carter and Gaborik, who is back in practice during his recovery from a knee injury. Blake said he is hopeful Gaborik will return to the Los Angeles lineup by early December.

Cammalleri is returning to Alberta after two earlier stints with the Calgary Flames. He spent the past three seasons with New Jersey.

Jokinen spent the last three seasons with the Florida Panthers. He has won two Olympic medals with Finland.