Oilers win Woodcroft debut, defeat Islanders after firing Tippett

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers won their first game under coach Jay Woodcroft, 3-1 against the New York Islanders at Rogers Place on Friday.

Woodcroft replaced Dave Tippett, who along with assistant Jim Playfair were fired Thursday, a day after a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Woodcroft was making his NHL coaching debut after four seasons with Bakersfield of the American Hockey League.
"It's a good team win," Woodcroft said. "I enjoyed the way the game was played today. I thought our players really played hard for each other. [Goalie] Mike Smith really turned in an 'A' performance, it allowed us a chance to work our way into the game. I thought we got better as the game went on tonight, and what I really liked to see, when the game was on the line in the third period, we valued hard plays and that's a credit to the players in the dressing room."
Smith made 37 saves, and Connor McDavid had two assists for the Oilers (24-18-3), who had lost two straight by a combined score of 8-1.
Anthony Beauvillier scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 33 saves for the Islanders (17-18-6), who will play at the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

Cody Ceci gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 19:03 of the first period on a shot from the point. The Islanders outshot the Oilers 18-11 in the first.
"I thought we came out with a great first period, we were skating well, we were creating a lot in their zone and we got a lot of chances," Islanders defenseman Andy Greene said. "We just couldn't get that first one to get going. I thought we played a really good game today."
Zach Hyman made it 2-0 at 10:17 of the second period with his 100th NHL goal. He kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush with Philip Broberg and scored from the left face-off circle.
Hyman has scored three goals in the past 18 games after scoring 11 in the first 21 games.
"For me, I think goal-scoring is funny; you score in spurts, it seems like," Hyman said. "One of my first coaches [Mike Babcock] said something to me that stuck was that at the end of the year, you tally up all of the goals and it all evens out at the end. Your shooting percentage will even out at the end, so you're going to have spurts in your season where you're not scoring for an extended period of time, then you'll have spurts where you're scoring a lot."

Beauvillier cut it to 2-1 on the power play at 15:04 when he took a pass from Ryan Pulock and scored on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle.
"I thought in the first period we had some really good looks. I thought we could have been up a couple of goals in the first period," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "We didn't find the back of the net, that was a little bit of us and a little bit of Mike Smith. I thought he played very well. We had some really good looks. It was 2-1 and I thought we had it tied up, Casey [Cizikas] had a breakaway, [Beauvillier] hit the crossbar. I thought [Oliver Wahlstrom] scored, and it didn't happen.
"Then they score a power-play goal, where it sort of got bumped to the middle and it bounced around and they whacked at it and put it in the net. We couldn't get it tied up."

Jesse Puljujarvi made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 9:14 of the third period. He dove for a loose puck in front off a face-off and chopped it in between the pads of Sorokin.
Smith won for the first time since Oct. 16, the second game of the season against the Flames. He missed 26 games with a lower-body injury, then returned to play three games before sustaining a thumb injury, missing another eight games.
"It was an emotional 24 hours, [Tippett] and Jimmy [Playfair] have been a big part of my career," Smith said. I owe a lot to 'Tip' and what he has done for me.
"From a personal standpoint, it's difficult, but it's part of the business and we have all been through it a time or two. For [Woodcroft] to come in and [Dave Manson] to come in on short notice on a game day, they were able to get their message across and we were humming right from the drop of the puck. It was nice to see, and to win is the important thing, so that was great too."
NOTES: Woodcroft is the fifth Oilers coach to win his NHL debut, joining Todd Nelson (Dec. 30, 2014), Ralph Krueger (Jan. 20, 2013), Craig MacTavish (Oct. 6, 2000) and George Burnett (Jan. 20, 1995). … Oilers defenseman Markus Niemelainen had two shots and a game-high seven hits in 11:00 after being called up from Bakersfield on Thursday to replace Duncan Keith, who is out 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury. … Broberg, also recalled Thursday, was plus-1 in 11:38. … Hyman has scored 212 points (100 goals, 112 assists) in 384 NHL games in seven seasons with the Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs.