GAME RECAP: Blue Jackets 3, Oilers 2 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB - The Columbus Blue Jackets ended a six-game win streak for the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night with a 3-2 overtime victory at Rogers Place.
Derek Ryan's seventh goal of the season, all coming on home ice, equalized for the Oilers midway through the second period before Zach Hyman continued his hot streak as the NHL's First Star of the Week with the go-ahead goal before the second intermission.
Kirill Marshenko answered back to tie it 2-2 in the final frame with a powerful unassisted marker before another Columbus rookie in Kent Johnson ended Edmonton's win streak by beating Stuart Skinner glove side 2:29 into overtime.
"I think it's always disappointing when you don't get two points," Ryan said post-game. "I think we let one slip away there and credit to them, they played a good game and took advantage of their opportunities."
Netminder Joonas Korpisalo backstopped the Blue Jackets with 34 saves in the victory, including a pair of crucial stops in the first period and a Save of the Year candidate on Leon Draisaitl during Edmonton's lone power play in the middle frame that was eventually converted by Hyman for his 25th goal of the season.
The Oilers six-game run was the longest active streak in the NHL prior to Wednesday's defeat, and after failing to extend their run, Edmonton will have to start again to try and string together seven straight wins for the first time since winning nine in a row during the 2000-01 season.

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THE FINN FLASHES THE PAD

The left pad of Korpisalo caused early headaches for the Oilers as they pressed for a lead in the opening half of the first period.
The Finnish netminder came to play for the second consecutive game after making a season-high 45 saves in a 4-3 overtime loss on Monday in Calgary. Twice Korpisalo utilized the left pad in close to keep it level near the eight-minute mark of the opening frame, making his first on a fellow countryman in the danger zone after Warren Foegele fired a hard pass onto the tape of Jesse Puljujarvi for a good chance.
The left pad was back at it 16 seconds later off the proceeding faceoff when Korpisalo lunged across to deny a point-blank chance for Dylan Holloway, who couldn't cash in from the doorstep and claim his third goal of the season.
The pair of stops proved crucial to Columbus formulating a response in the final 10 minutes of the opening period to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

FIRST BLOOD

Columbus captain Boone Jenner waited until the last moment to raise his stick and put a deceptive deflection on Adam Boqvist's long-range shot and beat Stuart Skinner at 7:35 of the first period. The Blue Jackets would have been relieved to score first with their dismal 5-23-2 record when giving up the game's first goal, and their 1-0 lead through 20 minutes on Wednesday seemed justified after a strong push in the period's final 10 minutes.

RYAN ROCKS ROGERS PLACE

Derek Ryan loves himself a goal on home ice this season. The 36-year-old forward picked up a pressured puck from Puljujarvi and Holloway in the neutral zone and took advantage of the open ice in front of him to walk through the stretched Columbus defence and snipe his seventh goal of the campaign glove side on Korpisalo to equalize for Edmonton just past the midway mark of the second period.
""He [has an] underrated skill level, probably because he prides himself in being in the proper position all the time," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Sometimes he doesn't take the risk that maybe some high-end offensive players might take, but when he gets the opportunity, and if you look at the goal he scored, they were on the ice for a while and most of his linemates were going to change. He found a little bit of daylight there, took it, and he made it count with a great shot."
All seven of Ryan's markers this campaign have come at Rogers Place, including 11 of his 12 total points.

SAVE OF THE GAME

The gasps through the gallery at Rogers Place and Draisaitl's expression said it all when Korpisalo came up with a jaw-dropping stop during Edmonton's first power-play opportunity.
The German had it right where he wanted it with a one-timer from the right circle on the man advantage, but despite Korpisalo having to jet across from his knees to follow a backwards pass from Zach Hyman, the Finn flashed the leather to completely rob the NHL's leader in power-play goals over the last five seasons with the Save Of The Year candidate.

JOHNNY BE BAD

Edmonton is surely the place in the NHL you'd expect to hear the second-most boo's for Johnny Gaudreau, but they were cheering him on his rash decision-making during a brief moment of the second period.
Connor McDavid ramped up the aggression and physicality on the former Flames forward during a shift against his former Battle of Alberta opposition. The captain's tenacity led to a retalitory crosscheck at the Oilers blue line from Gaudreau to set up the Oilers first power play and an opportunity to take the lead.
Korpisalo came up with his huge glove save on Draisaitl, but the Blue Jackets couldn't keep Edmonton's top-ranked power play off the scoreboard for much longer when McDavid put a pass from ther top of the circle onto the waiting stick of Hyman at the back post for a 2-1 Oilers lead in the final five minutes of the second period.

With his 25th goal of the season, Hyman stays hot after claiming the NHL's First Star of the Week honour last week with four goals and five assists in three Oilers victories over the Kraken, Lightning and Canucks. The assist for McDavid stretched his point streak to a quiet 11 games (8G, 11A) that's already the captain's third point streak this season of 10+ games.

OVERTIME AND OUT

Kirill Marchenko's 11th goal of the season (with no assists during that span) off a strong unassisted effort into the crease represented the only action of the third period and squared the game at 2-2 to force overtime, where Kent Johnson's wrist shot from the top of the slot caught a piece of Skinner's glove on the way through into the back of the net for the game-winning goal 2:24 into sudden death.
"I saw a lot of bobbled pucks, stick-to-skate passing [that was] not as crisp as we had been, but saying that, we found ourselves with a 2-1 lead heading into the third period against a team that was competing very hard against us," Woodcroft said. "In the end, we made a mistake and got rolled out of a corner and beat to the net, and we ended up with only one point instead of two."

PARTING WORDS

Woodcroft on the Oilers being unable to extend their streak against weaker opposition after some solid days of practice:
"I think I wouldn't knock the effort. I thought the effort, guys gave us what they had tonight, but the polish certainly wasn't there. Sometimes when you have that many days in between games, you get out of a little bit of a rhythm. But in the end, those are excuses. We try and find ways, not find excuses. In the end, we walked out of here with only one point. We felt we were in position. We did some decent things tonight. We'll take our point and we'll move on."
Barrie on the Blue Jackets stifling the Oilers at home:
"They played back a little bit and kind of sunk in and challenged us to try to play through them. Maybe we got a bit stubborn at times and didn't dump it in and go get it or put it in good spots to get it back, but give them credit. Their goalie played well and they played a hard game and made it hard on us and stuck around."

Ryan on Columbus battling hard despite being last in the NHL standings:
"I think they played well. There's no easy games in the NHL. Every game is going to be hard, but that being said, I don't think we played our best tonight."
"I don't think we took them lightly at all. Everyone in here was prepared for that big game. We knew they're going to come out hard. They played Calgary hard too the other night and we just didn't get to our game soon enough. Tip your hat to them, they played a nice game."