"For him to kind of be a journeyman, to wait this long for his first career NHL start, to be close to home for him, the way he played tonight, you can't really write a better script," Kane said. "You got to be ecstatic for him. We were all jacked up after the game. Probably happier than a normal win in the regular season just because he was in net."
Jesse Puljujarvi, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers (17-18-3), who have lost two in a row following a four-game winning streak. Cam Talbot made 32 saves.
"We had so much momentum going. We were outshooting them, outplaying them and out-chancing them, and then we take back-to-back penalties (in the second period) and they get a goal and take away the momentum," Oilers forward Pat Maroon said. "It kind of changed the game. I thought we stuck with it though. We battled back, and that's a point we need."
Puljujarvi scored on the power play at 14:26 of the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.