Edmonton Oilers are back, just ask the Colorado Avalanche

After hitting three goal posts in the early going of a loss to Dallas last game and losing three video review challenges in a loss to St. Louis in the game before that, the Edmonton Oilers were overdue for a break.

Or three.

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So they regrouped Friday evening and started doing the things that usually end up turning your luck — playing fast and hard, shooting the puck and going to the net with purpose.

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And, guess what? The Oilers turned fortune in their favour all night in a 6-2 win over the visiting Colorado Avalanche.

They had two goals go in off Colorado skates, another one off Evander Kane’s leg, had a penalty taken off the board because the referees changed a call, they won a questionable goalie interference review, they had four of the game’s first five power plays and knocked one of Colorado’s best players from the game early in the second period.

Everything was falling their way. But you make your own breaks and with the shots 24-9 halfway through the game and 46-23 at the final buzzer there was little doubt which team deserved to be in front.

“We have a lot of guys on this team who know how to score in the dirty areas, they’re good at it and they find their way there,” said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, who picked up his 101st point of the season and 500th assist of his career in the lopsided win.

With Edmonton trying to wash away the taste of Wednesday’s humbling 5-0 defeat in Dallas and the Avalanche playing on heavy legs in the second of back-to-back games (the first one was in Minnesota), the stage was set for a classic Oilers rebound game.

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And that’s what they delivered. Tied 2-2 after 20 minutes on goals from Corey Perry and Connor McDavid, the Oilers pulled away with two goals in the second period from Mattias Ekholm and Kane and one more each from Kane and McDavid in the third.

“Much needed” said Draisaitl. “(The Dallas loss) is not the team or the game that we are, or we want to show, on a daily basis.

“That being said, those games happen. Eighty two is a lot of games, and you’re going to have a couple of those a year. The most important thing is how you respond, and that’s something over the last couple years — including the playoffs — that this team does really, really well. Respond to poor efforts or bad games.”

The win keeps Edmonton a few steps ahead of Vegas in the race for home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs and settles things down after what happened against the Stars.

It also clinches a playoff spot, something that looked out of reach when they were stuck in the mud and firing a coach in November.

“In November things weren’t looking great,” said Kane. “But we had the belief that we could turn it around and we did that. It’s a nice feeling.” 

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“It is a big testament to the group that when we come together and play like we can, and you saw a great example of it tonight, we are a tough team to beat,” added Ekholm. “And hopefully we can keep this going and do some damage come the next couple months here.”

Ekholm’s game is getting white hot down the stretch. The big Swede had his name all over this game, assisting on Edmonton’s second goal, scoring their third goal and knocking Mikko Rantanen out of the game with a crushing hit early in the second period. He also has 15 points in the last 10 games.

“He’s such a big factor for us,” said Draisaitl. “He’s been so good since the day he got here. He’s been nothing short of amazing for us.”

Colorado didn’t like the hit, but there didn’t seem to be much of anything wrong with it.

“I watched the hit about 15 times at intermission and I cannot see anything different that I can do,” said Ekholm. “I think it’s a shoulder on shoulder. The play happened so fast. It just happened that he wasn’t expecting it. If you look on the replay, I’m stopping right before the hit. I could have gone right through him, but I thought I let up.

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“Still, it’s hard for him when he doesn’t see me coming. Hopefully he will be alright, but in my opinion it was a hockey play.”

Kane’s goal with 1.3 seconds left in the second period to make it 4-2 snapped a career-high 21-game drought. The puck went in off his leg after Georgiev bobbled a Ryan McLeod shot, but they all count and nobody needed one more than he did.

“It seemed like that was the only way it was going to go in,” chuckled Kane, who needed just 12 minutes to get his second of the night. “Any time you’re going double-digits without scoring it’s never fun, so however it goes in you’ll take it.”

Edmonton’s power play has been bleeding momentum for a while now. It is 0-11 through dating back to the third period four games ago against Anaheim. … Draisaitl hit the century mark in five of the last six seasons, missing only during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020-21 in which he has 84 points in 56 games.

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