At times Wednesday night the Edmonton Oilers looked like a gorilla eating a plate of spaghetti and red sauce with his bare hands.
Yeah, it was all kinds of messy, but you couldn’t knock the entertainment value. And, like a hungry primate throwing down fistfuls of pasta, you knew they’d find a way to get it done.
Despite falling behind 2-0 after another sloppy start, playing too loose in their own end, taking some undisciplined penalties and relying too heavily on goaltender Calvin Pickard, the Oilers polished off the Minnesota Wild like a nice bowl of Bolognese.
“When we’re down we’re never out of it,” said Pickard, who played a major role in the 5-3 decision. “We battle back. Huge win.”
Third-period goals from Vasily Podkolzin and Connor McDavid broke open a 3-3 tie to improve the Oilers to 5-1 through the first six games of what amounts to an eight-game road trip.
Once again, they come from behind. Once again they find a way. Edmonton’s resilience and calm in the face of adversity, whether it’s stormy waters in October or stumbling early in Minnesota, has become part of their DNA.
“It’s kind of been our mindset the last few years,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scored his sixth goal in the last 10 games in the win. “Stick with it and trust that we can get the job done no matter what the score is.”
It was imperfect in many ways — and if they play this loose against the Colorado Avalanche Thursday they’ll be in trouble — but they did what they needed to do in Minnesota and that’s all that mattered on Wednesday night.
“I think our guys like a challenge, but it’s making me age a little quicker than I’d like,” chuckled head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I’d like to get up by three goals early and cruise to a nice victory but the guys dig in and they can handle adversity, when things aren’t going well they don’t pack it in. I absolutely love the character of the team.”
They are now on an 18-4-1 heater that’s not really a heater, it’s just who they are. Pretty good considering where they were a couple of months ago.
“We’ve been through it before,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “It’s not something you ever want to do but sometimes you can take some experience from the past and understand that your first 10 or 15 games don’t define you as a team.
“We know who we are as a group and we’re starting to find it.”
BIG TIME SAVES
Pickard had a big night in goal, keeping them in a game that could have easily fallen the other way. He robbed Marco Rossi from point-blank range with the Oilers clinging to a 3-2 lead midway through the third period and stopped a two-on-nothing early in the second with a save every bit as good as the one Stuart Skinner made against Los Angeles.
Beyond those were a handful of other heartbreakers that had the Wild looking skyward.
“We definitely had more high quality chances against than we’d like to give up,” said Knoblauch. “But some of those saves, acrobatic, it was something. It was a great game by him. It’s not too often you say he was spectacular after letting in three on 30 shots but he was.”
McDAVID PASSES KURRI
With two goals and one assist, Connor McDavid willed the Oilers to victory, passing Jari Kurri for second on the Oilers all-time scoring list with 1,044 points in the process. Wayne Gretzky is first with 1,669 points as an Oiler.
LATE TO THE PARTY
After scoring first in seven straight games, the schedule might be catching up with an Oilers team that’s been struggling out of the gate lately.
They were down 3-0 in the first period in Pittsburgh, down 2-0 in the first period in Chicago, outshot 10-2 in the first 10 minutes against Los Angeles and down 2-0 in the first period Wednesday after a pair of Minnesota power-play goals.
They won three of those games, but they’re not making it easy on themselves.
OFF NIGHT ON THE PK
Edmonton penalty killing his been outstanding since the team righted its ship — a league-best 89.5 per cent (51-for-57) since Nov. 12 — but surrendering two goals on three Minnesota power plays put them in an early first-period hole.
“The thing I didn’t like in the fist period was taking the three penalties,” said Knoblauch. “They got the lead, which we didn’t want, but I liked our response.”
Zach Hyman and McDavid scored 1:56 apart to tie it 2-2 before the first intermission.
PLAYING HURT
This was a Minnesota team that was ripe for the picking. The Wild were gutted by injuries, missing their top three defencemen — Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, and Brock Faber, as well as leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov.
SKINNER SITS ANOTHER
After a brief spike in his stock after moving up to the third line after sinking to the fourth, Jeff Skinner was a scratch for the third straight game. Taking his place in the lineup was Noah Philp, who was called up from AHL Bakersfield.
E-mail: [email protected]