GAME RECAP: Avalanche 3, Oilers 2 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers were ready to taste revenge, but the Colorado Avalanche were cold as ice.
In the first rematch of last season's Western Conference Final, the Oilers held a two-goal lead through 35 minutes before the Avalanche saw their constant pressure over the 60 minutes of regulation and overtime snowball into a 3-2 comeback victory at Rogers Place on Saturday night.
Zach Hyman scored twice for Edmonton to reach 20 goals on the season, but goals from Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Hunt in the third period forced overtime, where Cale Makar scored unassisted 2:09 into the extra frame to earn the Avalanche the extra point.
Netminder Stuart Skinner was valiant in defeat, making 43 saves on 46 shots between the pipes for the Oilers.
"If you're a fan tonight and you're in that building, I thought it was a heck of a hockey game," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Lots of special plays were made, and it was exciting both ways. I think they were very motivated coming in. We're very motivated, and we realize how important points are, so we'll take this one and move on to taking on a good LA team on Monday.
Edmonton hits the road for a four-game road trip with stops in California and Nevada beginning Monday night at Crypto.com Arena against the Los Angeles Kings.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Full Highlights
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Post-Game vs. COL
POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft
POST-RAW | Zach Hyman
POST-RAW | Stuart Skinner
POST-RAW | Tyson Barrie
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

SAVE OF THE GAME

The 'Stuuuuu!'chants were echoing through Rogers Place early and frequently on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old stopped 15 shots from the Avalanche in the first period, with five coming off the stick of Colorado captain Nathan MacKinnon. The bunch included his best that came 5:35 into the opening frame when Skinner flashed the leather for a monstrous windmill save on MacKinnon after he was left alone between the circles for a clear-cut chance.
Skinner began the game spectacularly after not making it through the full 60 minutes in last start against the Seattle Kraken after conceding four goals on 20 shots, with all four coming on 11 attempts in the second frame.

FIRST BLOOD

Fresh off recording their respective 500th and 400th NHL assists against the New York Islanders on Thursday night, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were back at it.
McDavid broke the ankles of Logan O'Connor along the halfboards before offloading a pass low to Draisaitl, who saw one of the slimmest openings to sauce a return feed to his circling captain. With the Avalanche still processing the German's pass, McDavid was already looking in front for the stick of Hyman to direct past Alexandar Georgiev for his 19th of the season and a 1-0 Oilers advantage.
Hyman wasn't done there, though.

GAINING POWER

The Oilers fourth power play of the evening in the second period saw Hyman follow a bouncing puck off the backboards from a Tyson Barrie point shot into the danger zone, where the winger got a stick to the chance to send it five-hole on Georgiev for his second of the night and 20th of the campaign.

After the dust settled on a post-goal scrum around the Colorado net, the Avalanche bench led by Head Coach Jared Bednar challenged the call claiming goaltender interference that led to a lengthy review at the scorekeeper's booth. The referees would confirm the goal and Edmonton's 2-0 lead while keeping the Oilers power play on the ice and giving their top unit a much-needed rest for the coming advantage that evnetually became a short 5-on-3 when Erik Johnson was sent to the box for tripping McDavid.
The Avalanche had the majority of the pressure in the period until running into a string of penalties to deflate their own momentum.

MACKIN' YOU PAY

We've been treated to a few MacKinnon rush goals at Rogers Place in the past season-and-a-half. A few too many for our liking.
He did it in the Western Conference Final, and he did it again Saturday night. Defenceman Cale Makar picked out MacKinnon with speed heading up the ice through the neutral zone before the Colorado captain split the Oilers defence and flipped a shot high glove on Skinner just 3:06 into the third period. It's one of the hardest tasks in hockey defending a rush from the Cole Harbour, NS product, and MacKinnon thrusted out his arms in celebration of having finally beaten Skinner for his team on their 30th shot against the Edmonton netminder.
"He gets a puck in a spot when he's turning into it, and then he just kind of gets galloping there," Barrie said. "That's tough to stop when he's got that much speed, and you don't want to get him a puck in that position, for sure."
"MacKinnon skates not the exact same way as Connor, but he's a powerful skater," Woodcroft added. "He gallops, and if he gets a head of steam, he's hard to handle. But I go back to where we had the puck on our stick in the offensive zone. We turned it over, and he was able to split our D."

Finally, the Avalanche had something that could snowball into something bigger. Just 5:13 later, Former Oiler Brad Hunt came off the bench for a scoring opportunity from the top of the circles that the defenceman put past Skinner blocker side to even the score 2-2 with over half the final frame to play.
After relinquishing the lead but weathering the storm, the Oilers earned a point when the game made it to overtime.
"I think in the long run, it's an important point for us," Woodcroft said. "I thought our team did some good things out there. Obviously, we'd like to have closed them out, but they're the Stanley Cup champs. They pushed back."

OVERTIME AND OUT

What more does Zach Hyman have to do to get the hat trick?
Kulak struck the crossbar on a 2-on-1 with Nugent-Hopkins before Hyman came back on another rush, drove the net and struck the crossbar himself. On the rebound, Hyman batted the puck out of mid-air with some incredible hand-eye coordination, but couldn't beat the pad of Georgiev who was none the wiser to the play even happening.
"Just game of inches," Hyman said. "It went off the post in the overtime. Itcame out and I swung at it and got a good piece of it. It's hard to aim exactly where you want to put that one. You try to get it on net and he made a save there."
The Avalanche had been unlucky throughout the game hitting three posts, so it seemed fitting the favour would be returned at some point in the game.
"Give them credit. They played a solid game all the way through and they pushed," defenceman Tyson Barrie said. "Then we had some chances after they tied it up to regain the lead and (had) a couple good looks in overtime, and it just went their way."

When the Avalanche came back the other way with the puck on Makar's stick, you could sense trouble brewing. The all-world defenceman weaved up the ice and had all the space on the left side of the ice to pick his spot far side on Skinner for the game-winner, completing the Avalanche comeback from 2-0 down and keeping revenge out of the game script for the Oilers in a 3-2 final score.
"That was an elite play that he made, and there was a little bit of daylight there and he took it and he made a great shot," Woodcroft said. "It's usually a play like that, a special play, that gets made and decides it. Tonight, it didn't go our way. Typically, we're a very good overtime team, but weren't able to find the extra point tonight."
"Nate (MacKinnon's) back and they're playing a little better, but it's frustrating for us," Barrie added. "Two posts in overtime. Maybe we get one of those and then it's celebration in here instead, so it's frustrating."

PARTING WORDS

Coach Woodcroft on the strong showing from Edmonton's power play (2-for-5) and penalty kill (4-for-4):
"I thought our penalty kill was outstanding today against one of the top power plays around. They can put five dangerous people on the ice, and that late penalty they were awarded, for us to dig in there and help us secure an important point, that's where we're at right now. We're trying to secure as many points as we can. That's a good team. It was a good hockey game. Would have loved to add two (points), but we only got one tonight."
Coach Woodcroft on Colorado's dominance at 5-on-5:
"We did some good things, but tonight was a battle in the neutral zone of who was willing to get pucks behind the other teams D-core. For us, we didn't get enough pucks behind their D-core to put them under any type of duress early, but we got better at it as it went on. In the end, it came down to a play in overtime. There's lots of special players on the ice and, as I said, I think it's a hard-fought point. Would have loved to add two, but we got one."

Skinner on his observation of MacKinnon's tying marker and Makar's winning goal:
"It was a great shot (by Makar). I mean, he's obviously the best defenceman for a reason. He's great offensively. He's a threat in every situation. it was on a 2-on-1, and yeah, he snuck it kind of right over the shoulder. I thought it was a good shot, but maybe I can do something different. And I'll look at it when McKinnon is very similar, he's busting down the ice through two guys and coming at you as a goalie. What are your chances of stopping that player?
"I guess (on MacKinnon's goal) for me, I've gotten a lot of practice. Davo's done it in practice on me for the past five years that I've been here, so I've had a lot of practice. He made a nice move, and I actually read it pretty well, but he take a nice shot and I was just half a second too slow on it."