Skinner makes 27 saves in shutout, Oilers cruise past Penguins

EDMONTON -- Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Place on Friday.

It was Skinner’s first shutout of the season, and his fifth in the NHL.

“I thought just all around, start to finish we just played a really solid game,” Skinner said. “It started with the D-zone obviously, and from there we were able to capitalize on some offense. And that’s normally how it starts for us, when we are solid in the D-zone we get a lot of chances.

“In the first period, I had five shots (against) and everything was from the outside, so just an amazing team effort.”

Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm each had a goal and an assist, and Viktor Arvidsson had three assists for the Oilers (3-4-1), who had lost two in a row (0-1-1).

“I think the defensive side of the puck was excellent today,” said Arvidsson, who earned his first three points of the season. “We backtracked really hard and made them chip it and then we’d turn it up and got going again. I think that was the key part of our game tonight.”

Joel Blomqvist made 46 saves for the Penguins (3-5-1), who have lost four straight (0-3-1).

“[Blomqvist] played terrific, I thought he was really good tonight, he kept us in the game,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s concerning because we’re just not good enough right now. We didn’t play hard enough, we didn’t play together as a group, we weren’t good enough.

“It’s team defense, we didn’t have the puck enough. We have to hang on to pucks, we have to make plays when they’re there and hang on to pucks in the offensive zone. We just didn’t have the puck enough. It’s a collective effort. We have to do a better job hanging onto pucks in the offensive zone.”

Edmonton outshot Pittsburgh 19-5 in the first period.

“To be honest with you, nothing much (in the way of shots faced) until halfway through the second period and all I thought was how good this goalie at the other end’s doing,” Skinner said. “He was incredible, he was just moving so well, making some incredible saves. So, huge kudos to him and the way that he played and how he battled.”

Leon Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 13:00 of the second period on a wrist shot from just above the right face-off dot past Blomqvist’s blocker.

Bouchard made it 2-0 at 17:35 with a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Blomqvist stick side.

“I think maybe I left the far post a little bit open there, but I need to learn from each thing that happens out there,” Blomqvist said. “You stay in the game pretty well when there’s shots coming at you all the time. You can’t really choose what’s going to come in the game at you, so you need to be ready for everything.

“I felt pretty good. You can’t really count the shots, I need to stop everyone and that’s what you’re trying to do. I feel like I learn from each game. Obviously, it’s a good league so the margins are small, every mistake you see right away. I just need to learn from it all the time.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored 16 seconds into the third period to extend it to 3-0, corralling a bouncing puck in front of the Penguins net and snapping it in for his first goal of the season.

Ekholm scored on the power play for the 4-0 final at 7:00, a wrist shot from the point through traffic.

“That was what we didn’t do a couple of nights earlier on in the year, where we played very well at the start and then kind of faded away and then they would get a goal and we got a little fragile,” Ekholm said. “But I thought tonight we got a solid 60 minutes. I didn’t think we gave up a whole lot, and ‘Stu’ obviously played great.

“As a team, we had north of 45 shots and 19 in the first, if you do that you are going to get results eventually and it was just a matter of the puck going in. At the end of the day, it sure did in a good way, and we’ve just got to keep it rolling.”

NOTES: Drafted first overall 10 years apart, it was the 14th head-to-head matchup between Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. ... Edmonton defenseman Troy Stecher played his 500th NHL game ... Draisaitl extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists).