Suddenly, all is right again with the Edmonton Oilers, who destroyed Utah Hockey Club 7-1 at Rogers Place on Tuesday (March 18) evening.
Related: Oilers Offense Explodes in 7-1 Rout of Utah HC
Zach Hyman scored twice for the Oilers, who also got goals from Viktor Arvidsson, Mattias Ekholm, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Vasily Podkolzin. Utah’s only goal came off the stick of Sean Durzi.
Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard made 29 saves. Karel Vejmelka started the game between the pipes for Utah before being replaced by Jaxon Stauber to start the second period.
Edmonton dominated from start to finish, going ahead 3-0 after the first period and stretching its lead to 5-0 before Utah finally got on the board late in the second period. The Oilers peppered Utah’s goalies with 42 shots.
The Oilers have now won three straight games, their most consecutive victories since late January. Before starting this current winning streak, Edmonton had only won three of its previous 11 games.
Ekholm Shines in Return
Veteran blueliner Ekholm returned to Edmonton’s lineup after being sidelined for a couple of weeks with a lower-body injury and didn’t look like he missed a beat.
In addition to scoring his 10th goal of the season, the 34-year-old Swede recorded a pair of assists for a three-point night. He also blocked four shots, dished out a pair of hits, and finished the game with a plus-three rating.
Ekholm, who logged 21:27 ice time on Edmonton’s top defensive pairing with Evan Bouchard, told media before the game that he found it difficult to be out of action.
“It’s hard to watch on TV,” he said. “I don’t really like that at all. You want to part of it obviously, especially during the stretch run coming down here, so I’m happy that I feel better.”
Slump Busters
A couple of Oilers forwards broke out of scoring slumps on Tuesday. Podkolzin’s goal was his first in nearly nine weeks, while Nugent-Hopkins ended a stretch of 10 games without lighting the lamp.
Nugent-Hopkins also dished out a pair of assists on Tuesday. He now has six points in Edmonton’s last two contests, which is more points than the 31-year-old had totaled over 14 games from Feb. 4 to March 14.
While he hasn’t been putting the puck in the net much this season, Podkolzin has established himself as the Oilers’ most physical forward, leading the team with 167 hits through 68 games. He dished out four hits on Tuesday, extending his streak to five consecutive games with at least four hits.
Nurse Knuckles Up
Another Oiler that made his presence felt on Tuesday was Darnell Nurse. The veteran blueliner dropped the gloves with Utah forward Jack McBain late in the first period engaging in a short but spirited tilt that saw both combatants land a couple of good shots.
Nurse racked up seven penalty minutes (PIMs) to go with seven hits on Tuesday, becoming the first Oilers player with at least seven PIMs and seven hits in the same game since Jujhar Khaira more than seven years ago, on Feb. 7, 2018.
“There’s got to be an element of physicality and an element of bite to our game, and I think we definitely have some pieces in our lineup and pieces that are coming into our lineup (that provide that) and it’s definitely something I can bring too,” Nurse said while speaking with media in the Oilers locker room following the victory. “Games like that, when it’s a little heavy and there’s an element of physicality, it’s fun to be a part of.”
Isn’t it Ironic?
So often while Edmonton struggled through February and the first part of March, it seemed like the only Oiler who could produce offensively was Leon Draisaitl. Draisaitl came into Tuesday’s tilt sitting on a league-leading 49 goals and riding a career-best stretch of 18 games in a row with at least one point.
So, it was cruelly ironic that on a night Edmonton scored seven times – its most goals in a game since Dec. 12 – Draisaitl was kept off the scoresheet entirely, neither scoring goal No. 50 nor picking up an assist to keep his point streak alive.
The Oilers tried to help their alternate captain find his way into the scoring summary, sending Draisaitl out for a power play in the third period. The move raised a few eyebrows, considering Edmonton was leading 7-1 at the time, but Utah head coach Andre Tourigny held no ill will towards the Oilers for trying to run up the score.
“He’s in front of his fans, people pay to come to see him play and they run their team the way they want to run their team,” Tourigny told media after the game. “If that was my biggest problem today, I would take that day any day.”
Jets up Next
The Oilers’ victory over Utah was hugely significant with respect to the playoff race, as Edmonton moves three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific Division while pulling to within two points of the first-place Vegas Golden Knights. Los Angeles and Vegas both had the night off on Tuesday.
Edmonton now gets to set to host league-leading Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Place on Thursday (March 20). The Oilers will be out for revenge after getting embarrassed by the Jets 6-0 in the season-opener for both teams at Rogers Place on Oct. 9. This will be the first meeting between the teams since then.
