Oilers defeat Red Wings in OT, tie franchise record with 9th straight victory

DETROIT -- Darnell Nurse scored at 1:20 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers tied a franchise record with their ninth straight win, 3-2 against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

Nurse collected a loose puck in the slot and beat Alex Lyon for his sixth goal of the season.

Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman scored for the Oilers (22-15-1), who matched their previous nine-game runs (March 27 to April 13 last season; Feb. 20 to March 13, 2001). Calvin Pickard made 15 saves.

“Considering how many great teams they had in the 1980s, with all those Stanley Cups (four), I’m shocked they didn’t have a run longer than nine games,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “That feels good, but we need to keep piling up wins.”

Lyon made 44 saves, and Olli Maatta tied it late in the third period for the Red Wings (20-16-5), who had won three in a row and four of five.

“It’s interesting to play a game against a team like that, because it lets you see how high the bar is set,” Lyon said. “We knew this was going to be a good test, and it is a huge point.”

Andrew Copp gave Detroit a 1-0 lead 1-0 at 3:34 of the third, ending a 26-game drought (Nov. 7).

“I feel like I’ve been productive, but it has been a lot of assists (11),” Copp said. “It was nice to get back in the goal column.”

The goal was upheld after the Oilers unsuccessfully challenged for goalie interference.

“[Red Wings forward Christian Fischer] kind of clipped my glove,” Pickard said. “The ref explained to me that it was outside the blue (line).”

Detroit nearly doubled its lead on the ensuing power play, but Robby Fabbri’s shot hit the crossbar and post before bouncing away at 5:14.

“We hit iron five times tonight; those are all shots that could have been goals,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “If [Fabbri’s] shot goes in, we’re up 2-0 in the third.”

McDavid tied it 1-1 at 9:12. He got the puck at the blue line, skated around Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman and deked Lyon out of position before sliding the puck into the empty net.

“As great as that play was, McDavid’s hockey IQ was just as impressive,” Lalonde said. “He had to have the patience and poise to not touch the puck until (Leon) Draisaitl tagged up. I don’t know how many players could have thought that through.”

Hyman gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 14:00, beating Lyon with a wrist shot through traffic for his 26th goal of the season.

Maatta tied it 2-2 at 16:03, lunging to knock the puck over the line after it slipped between Pickard’s pads.

Oilers forward Evander Kane had a goal disallowed with 12 seconds left in regulation due to a hand pass by Derek Ryan.

Edmonton, which outshot Detroit 19-6 in the third, is 17-3-0 since a 5-12-1 start, including winning streaks of eight and nine games.

“We came into this season with a lot of confidence, and things didn’t go our way off the hop,” Nurse said. “We could have easily let it continue to snowball, but we found a way to dig ourselves out of it.”

NOTES: With his 906th point, McDavid tied Glenn Anderson for fourth in Oilers history; Mark Messier is third with 1,034. McDavid, who 27 on Saturday, is fourth on the NHL scoring list for players 26 and younger behind Wayne Gretzky (1,606 points), Mario Lemieux (1,014) and Dale Hawerchuk (929). … McDavid (seven) and Hyman (six) combined for 13 shots on goal; no Red Wings player had more than three. … Draisaitl won 12 of 15 face-offs (80 percent). … Lyon is 4-1-1 with a .913 save percentage since returning from injury on Dec. 29.