EDMONTON — These are the moments. The small windows where you can say, ‘OK, we see something different here. It’s not the same as before.”
The Edmonton Oilers walked out of the dressing room after 40 minutes leading the St. Louis Blues 2-1, with visions of closing out a hard, gritty win over the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Well, that lead lasted a mere two minutes and 12 seconds.
The reflex reaction in any matchup between the Oilers and the Blues was, “Hmmm, how many more will St. Louis get this period?”
But something funny happened on the way to St. Louis’ come-from-behind victory.
Leon Draisaitl scored a beastly goal just 121 seconds later — goal No. 29 for No. 29 — and the Oilers took the rest of the period away from the Blues, outshooting them until the final moments when the St. Louis pulled goalie Jake Allen.
When it was done, Draisaitl was celebrating a two-goal night, Josh Archibald a crucial empty-netter, and the Oilers a 4-2 win in a game they simply have not won many of over the past decade of mediocre hockey.
And they looked confident and comfortable while doing it.
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“That team over there, they know how to win hockey games,” Draisaitl said afterwards. “For them to tie it up, and for us to come back and win the game, it’s a big confidence boost for us.”
Head coach Dave Tippett was without James Neal (foot), Joakim Nygard (broken hand) and Kris Russel (concussion), in a game against a lineup that plays hard, heavy hockey with some of the best structure in the NHL today.
“These are games where you learn a lot about your team,” Tippett said, “because that is a good, deep team. Especially losing Nygard, Neal and Russell out of our lineup. There were opportunities for other people.”
Caleb Jones slotted in for Russell, scored a goal and showed poise in his own zone. Archibald, who has proven to be a nice platoon player on Connor McDavid’s left side, stepped in and played well. And Mikko Koskinen was excellent in just his second start in nine games, making a series of huge saves. He was simply better than Allen, and that’s the difference in what was essentially a one-goal game.
St. Louis reduces the game to a calculated series of puck battles, because they know they’re going to win 75 per cent of them. They’re big, strong, and even their few smaller players have the market cornered on that hockey commodity known as battle level.
“They’re so structurally managed that they’re doing the same thing every single night,” said Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson, who thrives playing this kind of hockey. “It doesn’t matter if it’s early November or late January, February, they’re doing the same thing and have a really structured team play. That’s where we’re getting at.”
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This was a prime example of why the Oilers are a far more dangerous team when McDavid and Draisaitl are deployed on separate lines. Since they’ve been separated the team is 7-1-2 and has outscored the opposition 44-28, by far the longest stretch of games they’ve ever played apart.
Draisaitl wasn’t great in a 4-3 shootout loss to Calgary on Wednesday, and against the Blues the Colton Parayko-Jay Bouwmeester pair did a pretty good job on McDavid and his line.
But against St. Louis Draisaitl, with Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on his wings, was the difference-maker. His second goal was a great solo effort after a sneaky good pass from Yamamoto.
“It was a big man’s game and he played well in it,” Tippett said of Draisaitl. “Both of his goals were good goals, well-earned goals. That line has played well for us. It is good to see that Leo, he has his game turned back the other way and is playing very well.”
Coming out of their All-Star break, Edmonton lined up against the Calgary Flames, St. Louis, and the Flames again in Calgary on Saturday night. Snaring four points in those three tough games is what a playoff-bound team should do, and this morning the Oilers awake with three points in the bank and a chance for five with a win on Hockey Night in Canada.
“Every game is huge. Standings are tight, points are tight,” said Draisaitl. “Just have to keep grinding away, keep getting points.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
