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The Edmonton won their fourth in a row, cruising past the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 Sunday night at Rogers Place.
“We put a lot of work into creating a game like that,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said after the win. “It doesn’t just happen. We put a lot of work into it and did the little things right and every once in a while a game like that is nice.”
“It was nice to see the start we had and goaltending was really good and that’s always a big part of the team,” defenceman Brett Kulak added.
Calvin Pickard started in goal for the Oilers and made a couple of solid saves on a Penguins power play midway through the first. Zach Hyman opened the scoring with his 41st of the season, tapping in the rebound from Connor McDavid’s shot on a two-on-one.
Early in the second, Pickard shot out his left pad to deny Sidney Crosby. Less than 20 seconds later, Ryan McLeod set up Corey Perry for his eighth of the season. Hyman scored less than three minutes later to make it 3-0 Oilers.
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Jansen Harkins was awarded a penalty shot after being fouled by Kulak on a breakaway with 2:55 left in the second. He shot wide, however, marking the second time this season Pickard has denied a penalty shot.
“He’s good at stopping the puck,” Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch remarked. “As a backup goalie, it is harder. Sometimes you get the weaker opponent, but often what goes unrecognized is you get the back-to-back game–you get the second game, which the team isn’t going to play as well in front of you. Those harder assignments the backup goalie usually gets and (Pickard) has been able to play really solid–really good for us for a very long stretch.”
The Oilers then blew it open with goals from Ryan McLeod and Cody Ceci 23 seconds apart.
McDavid banged in a long rebound for his 23rd six minutes into the third. Evgeni Malkin ended Pickard’s shutout bid with 7:37 to go.
“It took a weird turn behind me as I was turning my head and there was about a second there of hesitation,” Pickard recalled. “I turned my head and Malkin was putting it in. It was unfortunate but I got a couple good bounces along the way tonight too.”
Pickard finished with 22 saves. Draisaitl had three assists.
The Oilers have won their last five games against the Penguins, outscoring them 29-9.
The Oilers, 37-20-2, will visit the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 4 p.m., game at 5:30 p.m.).
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