EDMONTON — It wasn’t how Leon Draisaitl envisioned getting his league-leading 20th goal of the season, but he’s perfectly fine with it.
Draisaitl had the game-winning goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers won their third game in a row, hanging on to get past the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Tuesday.
Edmonton took a 2-1 lead with eight minutes to play in the second period as Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made a big stop on Draisaitl on a breakaway and attempted to sweep the rebound to safety, only to have it hit defender Victor Hedman and carom into the net. Draisaitl had already carried on past the net at the time it went in and thought maybe one of his linemates followed through.
“Originally, I thought maybe it was (Vasily Podkolzin) or maybe (Kasperi Kapanen). Whatever. It was not pretty, but I’ll take it,” he said.
The goal went into the books as Draisaitl’s 20th of the season, the ninth consecutive year he has hit the mark, tying him with Wayne Gretzky for third most in franchise history. Mark Messier and Jari Kurri both had 10.
“We’ve got to be able to win games like this — 2-1, 3-1, games like that,” Draisaitl said of the intensity of the game against the Lightning. “It was certainly a good benchmark for us as to how we want to play these games and get them over the finish line.”
Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers (16-10-2) who have won six of their last seven.
“That was a really good offensive team that we played against, with a lot of firepower,” said Oilers defender Darnell Nurse, who has been credited by the coach for his strong play of late. “We had the mindset, you want to win 1-0 or 2-1 and we were able to execute on that and (goaltender Stuart Skinner) made some huge saves for us at big moments as well. I think it is a good sign for us.”
Skinner made 20 stops in net for the Oilers.
“It was a game of intelligence and smarts,” Skinner said. “That’s why it was such a tight game. It was just a full-on team battle, both sides, for 60 minutes. Just a really, really solid game.”
Jake Guentzel scored for the Lightning (14-10-2) who had a modest two-game winning streak halted.
Tampa head coach Jon Cooper was not impressed by his team’s performance, or that of the Oilers either if truth be told.
“That was a bad hockey game — actually, probably by both teams. There was a lot of talent on the ice and I don’t think either team kind of had it. It’s just made worse that we didn’t get points out of it.
“I think we gave up four breakaways in the first 20 minutes, that’s unacceptable and how you walk away with no points in a hockey game.
“It was one of those nights where, when you play 82 of these, you’ve got to find a way to sneak some points out of them when you just don’t have it. And for most nights we’ve had it, but tonight we didn’t.
"I don’t know if they had it either, that’s what just kind of makes it sting a bit because we were there, there were some points for the taking. We just couldn’t grasp it.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded 23 saves between the pipes in the loss for the Lightning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press