GAME STORY: Oilers 3, Canadiens 0

MONTREAL, QC - Mike Smith recorded his 40th career shutout as the Oilers played a near-perfect game against Montreal on Thursday and finished their road trip with a 3-0 victory.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY
Photo Gallery
Highlights
Box Score
Look Back at the In-Game Blog
POST-GAME VIDEO
OILERS TODAY | Post-Game at MTL
POST-GAME RAW | Coach Tippett
POST-GAME RAW | Khaira
POST-GAME RAW | Smith

POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog

FIRST BLOOD

Jujhar Khaira continued his strong play of late, notching the night's opening goal by completing a precision passing play with his linemates for his fifth point in the last five games. Tyler Ennis pounced on a botched Montreal dump-in and quickly zipped the puck up to Josh Archibald at the attacking blueline. Archibald then found Khaira streaking down the left side and the centremen pinged a shot off the short-side post and in at 8:27 of the opening frame.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Khaira's completion of the pretty passing play with linemates Archibald and Ennis for the 1-0 tally pulls double duty as the top play of the night for the Oilers as well, with the big centreman securing his second goal of the season and second in the last four games.

SAVE OF THE GAME

There was no easing into this game for Smith, making his second start of the season, as Montreal forward Nick Suzuki was sprung in alone on a breakaway and the Oilers netminder made an excellent glove save on the first shot he faced, corralling the loose puck as well to keep it scoreless in the early stages.

TURNING POINT

The Oilers took a 2-0 lead into the final frame, leaving the Canadiens with a reasonable deficit to battle back from in the final 20 minutes, but Tyson Barrie's power-play blast at the 4:44 mark of the period extended the lead to three for the knockout punch.

TOP PERFORMER

Smith stopped all 38 shots he faced for the 40th shutout of his NHL career, become the 45th goalie in league history to reach that number of perfect performances between the pipes.

FACT CHECK

According to Sportsnet Stats, Darnell Nurse is the first Oilers defenceman with six goals within the first 16 games of a season since Hockey Hall of Fame member Paul Coffey in 1985-86. Not only does Nurse have six goals in 16 games, five of those goals have come in Edmonton's last six matchups. He's now tied with Montreal's Jeff Petry for the NHL lead in goals by defencemen.

NEXT UP

Edmonton's four-game road trip is now complete and the team will get a three-day break before playing a two-game homestand with back-to-back games against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday and Wednesday at Rogers Place.

PARTING WORDS

"Everybody wants to chip in," Khaira said of the team's secondary scoring as usual key contributors Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have recorded just one assist apiece on Edmonton's six goals the last two games. "Guys who are on the third and fourth line are not going in thinking they're not going to score. They're trying to produce as well and take some pressure off the top guys that produce day in and day out. When we chip in, it's big for the team."
"I've been really focused on what I can control and a lot of hard work went into my off-season," Smith said of his 65 saves on 66 shots to start his season after missing the first three and a half weeks. "The first two games have went really well for me. I felt like I was prepared for these games, and when you feel like you're prepared usually things go your way, so it feels good."

"There's a lot of people contributing right now and we're finding ways to win games," Head Coach Dave Tippett said as the Oilers improved to 9-7-0 on the season with six wins in their last seven games. "We're hanging around and scoring enough to win, and the thing that I like about it is we haven't given up a lot of goals on the trip after the Calgary game. That's what our mindset is and it's leading us to success."
"He really looked solid tonight, really in control," Tippett said of Smith. "He made everything look pretty simple tonight. I thought we played well in front of him, but he really did a nice job in there."