GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Blue Jackets 2

EDMONTON, AB - At long last, play La Bamba.
Jesse Puljujarvi scored twice and added an assist for a three-point night, Stuart Skinner parried 36 of 38 shots and Brendan Perlini chipped in with his first goal and assist in an Oilers uniform in a 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday at Rogers Place.
The Orange & Blue snapped a six-game losing slump - improving to 17-11-0 on the season and 10-6-0 at home - went 2-for-5 on the man advantage and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

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FIRST BLOOD

Legend has it that the Bison King boasts mighty powers.
Particularly on the Oilers early 5-on-3 power play, which produced Puljujarvi's ninth and 10th goals of the year just 46 seconds apart to open the scoring for Edmonton.
After a full shift of pressure in the Columbus zone, Blue Jackets players Elvis Merzlikins and Jakub Voracek received simultaneous penalties as the goaltender was called for tripping and the forward was sent to the sin bin for illegal equipment after participating in the play without a helmet on.
With a full two-minute, two-man advantage to work with, Tyson Barrie unloaded a slap shot from the top of the key that went wide and ricocheted off the end boards onto Puljujarvi's tape for a backhand deposit. The goal marked the first time the Orange & Blue got out in front of a game since Dec. 1 when Zach Hyman opened the scoring against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
On the remaining 5-on-4, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid traded cross-ice passes before the former sifted the puck into the slot for Puljujarvi, who filled the yawning cage with ease.

SAVE OF THE GAME

The puck stops at Skinner.
Longing for the first goal of the game after conceding it in each of the last six outings, Skinner provided his team with the net-protecting they would need to light the lamp before Columbus.
Within the opening minute of puck drop, Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier attacked the offensive zone, sifted to the middle of the ice then dished the puck over to the trailing Zach Werenski, who got a clean look from prime real estate only to be denied by the left pad of Skinner.

TURNING POINT

Before the Blue Jackets could muster any semblance of a comeback, Derek Ryan extended Edmonton's lead to make things more difficult for the visiting club.
The Oilers centre notched his second strike of the year at 11:07 of the first period while playing at even strength after muscling home a rebound off Perlini's wrist shot from the high slot. Perlini registered his first point with the Orange & Blue on the play as the Oilers pushed the score to 3-0.

TOP PERFORMER

Puljujarvi, Perlini, Skinner... pick your player.
All three Oilers had stellar efforts on Thursday but the Bison King deserves Top Performer honours with his three-point body of work to help end the team's six-game skid. Not only did the Finn gain his fourth career multi-goal performance but he also threw eight shots on goal while seeing 5:45 of ice time on the power play and 20:43 overall.

PARTING WORDS

Assistant Coach Glen Gulutzan on Skinner's big stops early in the game:
"It's exactly what you didn't want but I'm not going to lie to you, a part of it in my head was like, 'OK, Stu's warmed up and we got out of it and let's get going.' No, it's not the start we wanted. I'm just stealing some of our talk in the back room there: specialty teams, secondary scoring and timely goaltending."

Gulutzan's thoughts on the performance of Brendan Perlini and Derek Ryan:
"I thought that line was really good. I thought Derek Ryan, if you look at his stat line, 64 percent on draws, 13 or so minutes of ice time and a gritty goal going to the net. We talked about that, getting into the blue paint and tough areas.
"I thought with Pearls (Perlini) he had a great finish and I thought he won some battles. He didn't get in there early but he put a lot of pucks to the net. Seven or eight shots and I thought that line was good. You could see, we used them right until the end and they did a good job."
Gulutzan's assessment of Puljujarvi's night:
"I liked Jesse's game. You guys are going to see the eight shots, two goals and assist tonight and the 5-on-3 but I thought early, there was a couple of things in his game that we wanted him to be direct. He just straightened himself right out and had a big game. I thought he got better and better as the game went on."
Gulutzan on the Oilers going 10-0-0 when scoring first this season:
"I think everything has to come down to confidence. You start feeling good about yourself. That's something we're going to have to talk about, too. It's obviously important for us to score that first goal, it's important for any team. But maybe we can concentrate on the second goal a little bit, too, even if we don't get the first one. Let's just make sure we get the second. You'd want to have a stronger mindset than we need the first one to win."

Perlini on playing well at the AHL level and bringing it to the Oilers:
"I went down to the American League and I think any time you get the minutes down there, I played 20-plus both games, you really get a lot of puck-touches and get a lot of feeling back. For me, I noticed down there I had the same thing, seven or eight shots on goal. It was like, 'OK, try to do that up here. Try to replicate it and get pucks to the net. Good things will happen.' Luckily tonight, it did."
Skinner on the experience he's been getting this year:
"Just being able to get more games and more experience in, you start to get into the rhythm and flow of things. I just feel like the more games you get to play, the more learning lessons, more experience and that's always going to make you better."
Skinner on his opening save off the hop on Werenski and whether he likes feeling the puck that early:
"It went our way tonight, so I did like it tonight. Maybe if it went the other way, I'd probably be saying no to that question. It's always nice to get shots on right away. You get that feeling of the game and get warm again. It was a great game. The guys played really well in front of us. We had some huge blocks and I'm happy we got the win."