Sooner or later, something had to give for the Edmonton Oilers.
And it happened against another team also looking for something to finally give.
The Oilers brought a season-high five-game losing skid into Lenovo Center against a Carolina Hurricanes squad that had lost five of its previous seven.
And considering both struggling squads had identical 34-21-4 records, the spoils went to the one that managed to come up with the most desperation, as the Oilers recorded a much-needed 3-1 win.
And they did it on the strength of a 35-save performance by backup goaltender Calvin Pickard.
That put an end to a stretch of five straight losses in regulation, after having suffered a total of seven regulation losses in their previous 33 games.
Saturday marked the Oilers’ first regulation win in 12 games, with the last one happening back on Jan. 27.
The Oilers ended a five-game road trip through the Eastern Conference going 1-4, having gotten outscored 27-17.
The five-game skid is the longest by the club under head coach Kris Knoblauch. The last time they lost five straight was from Dec. 29, 2021 to Jan. 20, 2022.
And through it all, the Oilers watched their ranking plummet over the past month, going from fourth overall on Feb. 8, to seventh on Feb. 23, eighth on Feb. 24 and ninth when they woke up Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.
And they needed no reminding they had lost their previous three visits there by a goal differential of minus-9.
But they left having pulled back within two points of the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.
Tensions were high and emotions were on edge for the Oilers prior to ending the slide.
The CBC broadcast caught Leon Draisaitl expressing some frustration to assistant coach Glen Gulutzan after the Oilers were unsuccessful on the game’s first power play in the opening minutes.
But whatever was lacking on the man advantage got picked up short-handed just past the five-minute mark, when Henrique snapped home a rebound off a shot by Mattias Janmark to take a 1-0 lead.
“A lot of stuff we’d talked about, we put into play,” said Henrique, who had one goal in his previous 16 games. “Playing desperate hockey start to finish, top to bottom through the lineup and in the net, too.
“So, everybody came to play. Everybody did a lot of the little things right tonight and it paid off.”
At the other end of the ice, Pickard was on point, coming up with big saves on back-to-back stops, first on a redirection in front by Jordan Martinook, who picked up the rebound and immediately set up Jordan Staal on a one-timer as the Hurricanes matched their entire shot total over the first 14 minutes in one flurry.
But that didn’t stop them from outshooting the Oilers 8-7 in the opening frame after the Oilers went the final 13:01 without a shot on net.
“He’s great. He’s out there battling on every shot and rebound, he’s making the big saves,” Henrique said of Pickard. “There’s rebounds he’s battling right to the bitter end to cover up or get it out of there.
“So, it’s a huge game by him and a big reason for our win.”
The Oilers found themselves killing their third penalty of the game before the first period was through, after having held the Hurricanes power play without a shot over the first two.
Corey Perry put Edmonton ahead 2-0 in the second period, which had been a source of concern for the Oilers this trip, having been outscored 10-2 in the middle stanza over the previous four games.
Carolina got on the board in the third period, with Sebastian Aho finally punching one through on the power play, before Zach Hyman kicked a goal past Freddie Andersen that was immediately disallowed.
Seconds later, Hurricanes defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere had to reach back behind his goalie to pull the puck off the goal line. And he saved another one in front of an empty Hurricanes net in the final two minutes.
Despite being on the penalty kill the rest of the way, Aho got in on a breakaway looking for his second of the game, forcing Pickard to come up with an overtime-avoiding save.
“That’s something we would like not to happen, obviously, especially having the extra guy,” said Draisaitl, who sent a shot at an empty net at the other end, looking to push his goal streak to eight games, only to have the puck go off the post.
But while he still finished with a pair of assists to push his point streak to 11 games, Evan Bouchard made no mistake as he scored his first power-play goal of the season into an empty net in the final second.
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On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge