The Joy of Six: Edmonton Oilers shock Wild to extend their win streak

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You can’t win ‘em all.

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But if you are the Edmonton Oilers playing the Minnesota Wild, the numbers suggest you can just about lose them all.

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The Wild have been using Edmonton as a punching bag for as long as both teams can remember, winning nine of the previous 10 games and going 23-8-1 in the last 32 meetings.

So it’s obvious who the underdogs were Friday night at Rogers Place.

But the Oilers are a very different animal right now and the Wild have the bite marks to prove it.

Edmonton finally took a chunk out of their nemesis with a 4-3 decision to make it a season-high six wins in a row.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had his fingerprints all over this one, assisting on all four Edmonton four goals while Connor McDavid continues a pace that can only be described as ridiculous. He came into the game with four goals and 15 assists in his previous seven games and then added a goal and an assist.

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Evan Bouchard extended his consecutive-game points streak to 10 and counting, becoming just the second Oilers defenceman (Paul Coffey being the other) to reach double digits. Bouchard had two goals and an assist to make it 15 points in the 10 games.

Edmonton got a massive break on the game-winning goal early in the third period after Evander Kane got away with a hit from behind on Jonas Brodin, square in the numbers, that sent the Minnesota defenceman to the dressing room. When Ryan Hartman came looking for retribution, he was given the only penalty and Bouchard scored on the ensuing power play.

MIRROR IMAGES

This was a showdown between two teams on the exact same course this season. The Oilers got off to a terrible start and fired their coach on Nov. 11. The Wild got off to a terrible start and fired their coach on Nov. 27.

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Edmonton got rolling after their coaching change, going 7-3 under Kris Knoblauch.

Minnesota got rolling after their coaching change, going 4-1 under John Hynes.

Edmonton is trying to chase down a wild-card spot. Minnesota is trying to chase down a wild-card spot.

Edmonton started the day in 13th place with 21 points, Minnesota started in 11th with 22 points.

So there was a lot on the line for a mid-December regular-season tilt between two teams in different divisions.

The Oilers caught a bit of scheduling break for this one. Minnesota’s first loss under the new coach came Thursday night in Vancouver and they were playing the second of back-to-back games and their third road game in four nights.

The well-rested Oilers were playing their second game in three nights after a five-day break.

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You never would have guessed which team held the lopsided advantage in this series given how the night started. 

After scoring two goals in the first minute and taking a 4-0 lead at the first intermission on Wednesday against Carolina it was more of the same against Minnesota — except for the goals.

Edmonton ran wild in the first period, outshooting the visitors 18-4 in the opening frame and could have easily duplicated what they did against the Hurricanes, but Marc-Andre Fleury kept things from getting totally out of hand. The only puck to beat him came from defenceman Evan Bouchard.

It was the most lopsided 1-0 period you’ll ever see.

And that’s what it was so shocking to see the Oilers give it all away in the first 41 seconds of the second period. Fans had barely returned to their seats after fawning all intermission over how well the Oilers were playing than it was 2-1 Wild on goals from Matt Boldy at 15 seconds and Joel Eriksson-Ek at 41 seconds.

Wut?

Fortunately for the Oilers they have McDavid to step in and calm things down, which he did by going end to end and undressing Fleury to make it 2-2 at 1:21.

After Edmonton fell behind again at 11:38, Leon Draisaitl scored on the power play to square things up again at 18:30.

Somehow, with the shots 32-12 it was still 3-3 after 40 minutes.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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