GAME RECAP: Bruins 6, Oilers 5 (OT)

Charlie McAvoy scores 3:10 into overtime to put an end to an 11-goal thriller at Rogers Place & give Boston the extra point in a 6-5 victory over Edmonton on Wednesday

February 22, 2024

EDMONTON, AB – Defenceman Charlie McAvoy scored the game-winner 3:10 into overtime on Wednesday night to cut Edmonton's comeback bid short and bring an end to an 11-goal thriller at Rogers Place in a 6-5 victory for the Boston Bruins.

Warren Foegele scored twice while Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry and Zach Hyman each had a goal in the third period to erase two separate Boston leads after the visitors led 4-1 with just over six minutes remaining in the second period. Janmark and Perry scored 1:10 apart in the final frame before Hyman notched his team-leading 34th goal of the year just 44 seconds after David Pastrnak restored Boston's advantage with 7:19 left in regulation.

The Bruins came up with a vital penalty kill in the late stages of the third period and early in overtime, leading to McAvoy scoring the game-winning goal on a terrific drag around Evander Kane and backhand beyond Stuart Skinner with 1:50 left in sudden death to give Boston the extra point.

"We're happy with the way we battled back, down 4-1 against a really good team," Hyman said post-game. "To be able to come back twice and earn a point I think says a lot about our team. We faced adversity, but at the same time, you don't want to put yourself in that position. I think we have to learn. Since we've been back, we've put ourselves in this position too often and we have to learn to play consistently throughout the whole game."

Connor McDavid and Cody Ceci each had two assists, while Stuart Skinner stopped 30 of 36 shots in his 100th career start.

The road team has now won seven straight games in this head-to-head matchup, with the season series set to be wrapped up on Mar. 5 at TD Garden in Boston.

Watch the recap of Wednesday's Oilers vs. Bruins barn-burner

Edmonton's struggles on the penalty kill continued only 2:34 into the contest after Ryan McLeod chopped down Matt Grzelcyk to give Boston an early power play.

McLeod came down on the top of the Bruins' defenceman's left skate with his stick and earned himself the two-minute infraction, sending the visitors to the man advantage where centre Morgan Geekie feathered a wrist shot through traffic to beat Skinner for the 1-0 lead. Grzelcyk wouldn't return to the game for the Bruins, who'd play out the final 58:55 of the match with only five defencemen.

The early tally conceded by the Oilers penalty kill made it seven straight games where they've given up a power-play marker – the second-longest streak in the NHL this season – while their PK efficiency since Feb. 9 dropped to a league-low 52.2 percent (12-for-23) after finishing the night 2-for-3 on the kill.

Edmonton began to settle into the game past the period's midway mark and found the equalizing goal on a strong power move from Warren Foegele, who was taking the spot of the sick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the top line.

Foegele drives hard to the net & beats Swayman with a backhand

McDavid poked the puck off defenceman Derek Forbort's stick right to Foegele along the halfboards, who made a strong power move to the net between two Bruins defenders and slid his 12th goal of the season five-hole under Jeremy Swayman to make it 1-1 with 9:20 left in the opening frame.

With the takeaway that led to Foegele's equalizer, McDavid extended his home point streak to 20 games for the second time in his career, becoming the sixth player in NHL history to have multiple home point streak of 20-plus games with Wayne Gretzky (8), Bobby Orr (2), Mario Lemieux (2), Guy Lafleur (2) and Mike Bossy (2).

Skinner stood up Jesper Boqvist in between the hashmarks soon after with a big left-pad stop to keep the game level at the first intermission. The Oilers netminder was making his 100th career start on Wednesday and stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced in the opening 20 minutes.

Kris talks following the Oilers 6-5 loss to Boston on Wednesday

Before the Oilers could even blink to begin the middle frame, the Bruins had taken their lead back.

Brad Marchand had the puck dropped onto his stick by Danton Heinen at Edmonton's blueline before the Bruins captain came down the left side and sniped his 26th of the season short side past Skinner just 25 seconds into the period, restoring Boston's one-goal lead.

Before the frame's five-minute mark, the Bruins extended their advantage to two on Trent Frederic's perfect redirection that slid along the ice and struck the inside of the right post before crossing the line for the 3-1 lead.

Hyman finds Foegele with a sweet pass to set up his second goal

Hometown kid Jake DeBrusk converted a rebound at 6:03 of the middle frame to make it a three-spot against his childhood team, giving his friends and family – including his dad Louie on the Sportsnet broadcast between the benches – something extra to cheer about when he chipped home his 13th goal this campaign.

The Oilers cut the lead to 4-2 when Foegele was found alone in front by a sweet pass from Hyman, who put it onto the tape of the winger to wrap his second of the game around Swayman a minute-and-a-half after DeBrusk made it a three-goal game.

Edmonton would continue to press over the final six minutes of the middle frame, hemming the Bruins in their own zone for the better part of four minutes to end off the middle frame. Bruins defenceman Mason Lohrei, who was filling in for the injured veteran Hampus Lindholm, was stuck on the ice for a lengthy 3:46 shift.

Despite getting a goal back before the break, the Oilers have now been outscored 17-7 in the second period over their last eight games.

Corey speaks following the Oilers overtime loss to the Bruins

The comeback was well and truly on again for Edmonton.

The Oilers utilized the comeback at Mullett Arena in Arizona on Monday and were building towards repeating that type of effort inside Rogers Place tonight when they returned to the locker room during the second intermission with momentum from Foegele's second of the night and their lengthy shift in Boston's zone to end the middle frame.

"In the third period I thought we played with a lot of desperation, a lot of urgency in the offensive zone," Knoblauch said. "I think it started probably the last five or seven minutes in the second period and just carried on into the third where we had a lot of zone time. We were able to get a lot of shots recovered, and then, we're able to just get secondary opportunities from there."

Janmark cleans up a loose puck in the crease behind Swayman

Mattias Janmark scored for the second game running after 'the Janitor' cleaned up a loose puck for his third goal of the campaign when Cody Ceci's shot from the point squeaked through Swayman's right arm to leave the Swede with a tap-in to make it 4-3 at 13:06 of the final frame.

Just 1:10 later, Ceci slid it across the blueline to Darnell Nurse to deliver an effort on goal that was pushed out by Swayman before Corey Perry converted the rebound for his seventh goal of the campaign, and third as an Oiler, making it 4-4 with the Bruins on their heels after giving up a three-goal lead with three straight goals from Foegele, Janmark and now Perry.

Perry puts away a rebound on his deflection to tie the game

After David Pastrnak returned Boston to a one-goal advantage with 7:19 left in regulation, it took another quick response from the Blue & Orange to once again level things up and send this exciting matchup to sudden death.

Swayman couldn't control a powerful one-timer from Mattias Ekholm before Hyman was fastest to the loose puck and deposited his team-leading 34th goal this year past the Bruins netminder only 42 seconds later to make it 5-5.

Hyman's tally was Edmonton's third of the night that came directly from point shots with forwards pounding the blue paint in search of rebounds.

"We want to play faster, simple, and the only way to do that is just do you have to fire some pucks from the point," Knoblauch said. "And ultimately, those aren't usually going in, but it's usually the secondary opportunities. You're breaking them down, and whether it's a loose puck in front of the net or maybe it's just something that we recover from the corner, they have to get in position. They're not set. That's where you're going to break them down and take advantage of them being out of position.

"We played a lot faster, a little more direct and I'd like to do that right from the start."

The Oilers could've put an end to the game when James Van Riemsdyk took a late high-sticking call on Janmark with 20.5 seconds left, but the Oilers couldn't convert and would try to put an end to the game in overtime with 1:40 of carry-over time on the power play.

Hyman's shot through Swayman's legs ties the game again

The Oilers had their opportunities to end it, but in the end, the comeback couldn't be completed.

Edmonton generated three shots on their 4-on-3 power play but fell to 0-for-3 on the evening with the man advantage, but their concern soon after was immediately on James Van Riemsdyk, who exited the box and picked up a cleared puck for a breakaway to win it. The Boston winger tried to slide his effort five-hole, but Skinner shut the door to keep this game going.

The Bruins would end it on a piece of individual skill by McAvoy, who walked around the sliding Kane and avoided the poke check of Skinner before flicking the game-winner into Edmonton's net to claim the extra point for Boston.

"We had an opportunity to get a two-on-one there. It comes off the wall fast just because the angle is tough to make that pass, and then it leads to us being tired and having to defend. Anytime you have possession of the puck in three-on-three, it's a huge advantage. You never know what's going to happen."

Skinner squeezes his pads to deny van Riemsdyk in overtime