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Player grades: Adam Larsson leads Edmonton Oilers with stifling defence in 3-2 over Ottawa Senators – Edmonton Journal

Published

4 years ago

March 9, 2021

Harry Miller

Author of the article:

David Staples • Edmonton Journal

Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (97) battles Ottawa Senators’ Erik Brannstrom (26) at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday, March 8, 2021. Photo by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia

The Edmonton Oilers came out in iffy fashion, with goalie Mikko Koskinen letting in a nothing shot, but the team battled back.

The Oilers got an outstanding defensive effort from most players, Adam Larsson in particular, and thwarted the Ottawa Senators and most every turn in a 3-2 win, a score that flattered the Sens somewhat.

Edmonton had more Grade A chances in the second period, 10, than they had in any one game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in three losses.

Overall, the Grade A chances were 15 for Edmonton, and just six for Ottawa (running count).

Connor McDavid, 7. The power line had its moments, including a thrilling McDavid breakaway in the third. It was his ninth breakaway chance of the year. After a solid first period, McD also took a Draisaitl pass hard to the net on the power play early in the second. He made a swift pass to send Alex Chiasson in on his goal, his second assist of the game. Overall his Power Line out-shot the Sens 16 to 8 at even strength. McDavid made six major contributions to Grade A chances in the game, which is about his average on the season.

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Leon Draisaitl, 7. He and McDavid threatened to score all game. He made a gorgeous backhand pass to free McDavid for a rush in the first. Beat Joey Daccord with a sniper’s snipetty snipe snipe in the second, where the puck was on and off his stick in a tick. He did some great forechecking when Ottawa had pulled its goalie but missed a near open net shot.

Kailer Yamamoto, 6. Went to the kill floor where the damage is done and tipped in Darnell Nurse’s shot in the first. Otherwise played a quiet game, effective but quiet.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 6. A high-event game for Nugent-Hopkins. He had some good work on the power play, but not so much at even strength. If he’s going to lead his own line to success, he’s going to have to dig in a bit harder. His line got worked over by Ottawa’s vicious cycle in the first, culminating in two rapid Grade A chances against. Took a hard slash to the face from Mike Reilly. He worked his way in for a sneaky hard wrist shot on the power play that rang off the post in the second. A moment later he set up Alex Chiasson near the crease for two jam shots. Nugget then somehow failed to cash in on a stupendous steal and feed from Puljujarvi in the second, with the Ottawa goalie Joey Daccord on his belly. His line got outshot four to eight.

Jesse Puljujarvi, 6. He led the team with five hits. He came out fast and feisty, throwing a hard hit early on. He took an ill-advised penalty for putting the puck in the stands, even as he wasn’t under great pressure just then. He made a gritty puck protect move on a board battle in the second to get out the puck from Edmonton’s end. A moment later he came close to jamming in a shot off an Adam Larsson rush. Excellent hustle and skill play to set up RNH in the second, but Nuge couldn’t score.

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Tyler Ennis, 4. Quiet game, kind of like the guy he replaced in the line-up Dominik Kahun. Too quiet. He was out of position to stop a wicked third period point blast that was almost deflected in.

Jujhar Khaira, 6. Part of a solid defensive effort with his customary physical play. His semi-legal hit on Josh Norris led to a hard fight with nasty Erik Gudbranson. The refs called him on a super iffy trip call in the third.

Kyle Turris, 7. He made his sweetest play of the season setting up Alex Chiasson for a one-time cross-seam shot in the first. Turris followed that up by winning a battle and setting up Khaira for a Five Alarm slot shot. He kept the good times rolling early in the second, driving a Devin Shore cross-seam pass on net. He got some justice for all that good work, setting up Draisaitl’s goal with a clean feed. His run of good play ended when he gambled for a steal and allowed a three-on-two in late in the second, with Stutzle scoring on a hard wrister through a double screen.

Devin Shore, 6. He and Bear got beat by a Brady Tkachuk pass leading to a dangerous Tim Stuzle power play chance in the first. Hustled hard all game and was in on a few good plays.

Gaetan Haas, 6. Lots of speed, lots of hustle, not much in the way of results. Some solid work on the PK, including a key third period clearance.

James Neal, 5. Hustled hard, won some battles.

Alex Chiasson, 7. A typically solid game from Chiasson, where he played to his strengths, screening, battling and. shooting. Failed to score on a golden chance in the first, and also on two jam shots on the power play in the second. But the fourth time pays for all, as he lasered in a wrister a moment later, the sixth Grade A chance of that particular power play, so a bit of justice in the dice there. He led the team with six shots.

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Darnell Nurse, 8. Twenty-six solid minutes where he gave up pretty much nothing to the Sens, but made numerous strong plays with the puck. Doug Harvey in his rocking chair.

Tyson Barrie, 7. His eyes-up stretch pass kicked off Edmonton’s third goal scoring sequence. He deflected in Ottawa’s second goal, but a bit of hard luck play there.

Adam Larsson, 8. He’s playing excellent shut-down defence, game after game. He also submarined in on a rush in the second to set up Puljujarvi for a Grade A shot. He got a key clearance on the kill in the third. A moment later he wiped out Tkachuk with a body blow on a late Ottawa rush.

Kris Russell, 7. He’s now in mid-season form and is looking faster again just now. Another fine defensive game.

Caleb Jones, 5. He was hammered hard with a check in the first. His puck handling and defending was a bit shaky, but to give him credit, he was generally in bend-but-do-not-break mode. He made a nice pass on a scoring chance sequence early in the second.

Ethan Bear, 6. Looked a bit more solid than his partner on defence, Jones. He won a board battle on the kill in the third, leading to a Haas clearance. Looks like he’s finding his “A” game again, which is big for the Oilers, especially if he’s going to play ahead of Evan Bouchard.

Mikko Koskinen, 5. In terms of this game, that first Ottawa goal against was the Titanic hitting an iceberg. It was the second time this year he’s let in that same kind of goal where he’s failed to hug the post on an easy outside shot. But he didn’t sink, making a rebound save off Stuzle a few shifts later. He fought off a Stuzle’s power play chance late in the first as well. He almost made up for that early gaffe with a heads up pass on the power play that kicked off the Chiasson’s scoring drive. Ottawa’s second goal was tough as it deflected off Barrie’s stick. In the third he stopped a tough redirected shot Ryan Dzingel. A moment later he put up a wall on a tricky Matthew Peca shot. He did enough for his team to win.

At the Cult

STAPLES: Mysteries of the Edmonton Oilers revealed! Who is the team’s top power couple and how can they drive success?

STAPLES: Ennis is back

LEAVINS: 9 Things, including memories of Walter Gretzky and other hockey dads

MCCURDY: The Oilers snap a 3-game skid with a BOA win – Player Grades

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

22 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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