Edmonton — Stuart Skinner managed to hold his team together long enough for the Edmonton Oilers to wake up and continue their incredible run of 14 straight victories.
The Oilers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak. Skinner made 27 saves, and Warren Foegele and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist.
The second-year goalie for the Oilers has won 11 straight games, surpassing Grant Fuhr’s record for the longest winning streak in a single season.
Skinner, who is 18-2 in his last 20 games, stated, “It means a lot.” “I was experiencing a wide range of emotions, particularly when I went out for my first star. Being Capable of surpassing a record set by one of the greatest goalies in history.
It goes without saying that I have spoken to and look up to him. He is simply among the greatest. To be able to break it is a great blessing.
Foegele gave Skinner credit for staying alert while the team struggled to get traction.
“After two periods, that really could have been a 5-0 deficit. He was incredibly strong. Foegele remarked, “He has been playing unbelievable.” “These past few months, he has been unbelievable.”
The Oilers (27-15-1) also had goals from Dylan Holloway and Connor McDavid, making them just the seventh team in NHL history to achieve the prestigious 14-win streak.
The Pittsburgh Penguins set a record in 1992–93 with 17 straight victories. The Oilers have gone a franchise-record 12 games without allowing two goals or fewer, and they are currently 22-3-0 in their last 25 games.
For the Blue Jackets (14-23-9), who have dropped five of their previous six games, Dmitri Voronkov replied.
Columbus forward Adam Fantilli stated, “I thought we had a great start and for the first two periods, I really thought we were carrying the play.”
We’re a team that can seriously sabotage a game’s flow with our speed, so I assumed that was part of our strategy to start playing quickly and cause havoc. I felt like we were kind of winning, and we managed to get out of it in the end.
Eight and a half minutes into the first period, Edmonton’s power play saw Foegele chip in his tenth goal of the game after Kane centred the puck into a crowd
Elvis Merzlikins, the Blue Jackets goalie from last season
After a deflection off of defender Cody Ceci, the puck sat loose under Skinner, giving Columbus two chances to tie the game. However, Skinner stopped Johnny Gaudreau’s breakaway with a quick glove hand.
With 4:35 remaining, Edmonton’s careless opening frame play finally caught up to the team when Kent Johnson found Voronkov again, and before Skinner could get back across, Voronkov scored his tenth goal.
Midway through the second period, McDavid’s another power play goal appeared to have given the Oilers the lead, but a video review disallowed it because it was offside.
Columbus outshot Edmonton 23–13 through 40 minutes, demonstrating their continued superiority as a team in the middle frame. In the second, Edmonton went more than ten minutes without scoring a shot.
Five minutes into the third period, Kane grabbed a huge rebound and hammered home his 15th goal, giving Edmonton a 2-1 lead.
Less than a minute later, McDavid scored his 17th goal for the Oilers when Columbus’ Erik Gudbranson drove Oiler Zach Hyman into his own goalie. This gave the Oilers a two-goal lead. With the goal, McDavid’s home point scoring streak reached 17 games.
With 4:24 remaining in the game, Edmonton increased their lead after Connor Brown was denied by a strong save by Merzlikins. However, Holloway was there to score his second goal of the year on the rebound, sending the net wide open.
“I believe we all realized that if we played our style of hockey in the third, which we obviously didn’t in the first two, we had a chance,” Kane remarked. “I believed that we carried out that action for the most part.