EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Connor McDavid scored and set up Leon Draisaitl’s game-winning power-play goal at 3:18 of overtime to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
“We still had our looks today but teams are obviously hyper-aware when we’re out there so it only gets harder and harder,” Draisaitl said of Edmonton’s work with the man advantage. “But we stuck with it and eventually got one.
“We’ll take the two points, but obviously there is lots to do better.”
Adam Henrique also scored and Mattias Edholm added two assists as the Oilers won for the eighth times in 11 games (8-1-2). Calvin Pickard had 23 saves.
It was Henrique’s first goal since being traded near the deadline to Edmonton from the Anaheim Ducks.
“I feel my game’s been good. Of course you want to score, coming into a new team. You want to find ways to contribute,” Henrique said. “For me, the focus is that the complete game has to be there. (It was) certainly nice to get on the board tonight.”
Nick Suzuki and Kaiden Guhle scored in the third period as Montreal rallied from a two-goal deficit to force the overtime. Sam Montembeault made 29 saves for the Canadiens, who have lost three straight games, including two in overtime.
“It’s one of the best games that we’ve played all year, so a lot of positives,” Montreal assistant coach Trevor Letowski said. “I’m not going to stand here and be negative.
“It’s a tough way to go down because the players really left everything on the line and to have to kill six minutes like that in the game, especially against a team like that, we almost got to the end, but they made us pay right at the end of it. The (Montreal players) certainly shouldn’t hang their heads after that game, they should be real proud of their effort.”
Edmonton started the scoring 9:20 into the first period on a terrific individual effort from McDavid, who stripped a puck, danced around Guhle and beat goalie Sam Montembeault with his 26th goal of the season.
Guhle saved a goal about five minutes later as he knocked the puck from the crease before the Oilers could poke it into an open net.
The Oilers took a 2-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the second period. Mattias Ekholm made a nice pass to Henrique in tight and scored his 19th of the season.
Montreal ended Oiler goalie Calvin Pickard’s bid for consecutive shutouts just 32 seconds into the third period when the puck caromed off of both of Suzuki’s skates before heading into the net for his 27th of the season.
The Canadiens tied the game at 2 while the teams were skating four players aside 4:43 into the third period. Jake Evans fed Guhle, who beat Pickard on the glove side for his fifth of the season.
The Oilers were awarded a late power play and almost took advantage, but Zach Hyman rifled a shot off of the post.
Then, with 28 seconds to play, Joel Armia was assessed a double-minor for a high stick on Henrique that extended into overtime.
The Canadiens were without head coach Martin St. Louis, who was attending to a personal family issue.
McDavid is the first player with more than 80 assists in consecutive seasons since Joe Thornton accomplished the feat in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.
