WINNIPEG — It’s hockey’s well-worn cliché, that the breaks always even out in the end. So the trick becomes to steal a few wins when luck is working against you, then collect as many wins as you can when the breaks start falling your way.
Two days after the Edmonton Oilers surrendered power-play goals on two extremely sketchy penalties in a loss at Ottawa, they swallowed two more road apples from the National Hockey League zebras in Winnipeg — the second a phantom high-sticking call with 2:06 remaining in a 3-3 game.
Somebody’s stick hit the visor of Winnipeg’s Adam Lowry in a puck battle behind the Jets’ goal. Referee Brandon Blandina whistled Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a two-minute high-sticking minor, but television replays quickly revealed that the derelict stick belonged to Jets defenceman Dylan Demelo.
Look, it happens fast. These things happen.
They’ll be able to rescind that minor penalty via video review in the playoffs, the Oilers were told, but because it was not a four- or five-minute penalty the officials could not review this one in the regular season. Even though every person inside Canada Life Centre realized the call was wrong as they lined up to drop the puck on the Jets’ late power play, the game on the line for an Oilers team that dragged a two-game losing streak into the contest.
“We were losing it on the bench, obviously, for a little bit there,” said defenceman Darnell Nurse, whose game was strong in a physical affair. “But we were able to collect ourselves. I think it gave us a little motivation that we wanted to kill off the penalty knowing that we shouldn’t be out there killing (at all).”
The Oilers did indeed kill the penalty — a PK unit that gave up three goals in Ottawa was perfect on five attempts Tuesday — and stretched the game into overtime. There, Zach Hyman banged in his own rebound for goal No. 200 in his career and No. 51 on the season, for a 4-3 Oilers OT win.
“I don’t know if it’s worse that you didn’t do it, or worse if you did do it,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who had a goal and an OT assist on a five-shot night. “Regardless, you’re sitting in the box with two minutes left. Pretty stressful.”
“We showed a lot of resolve,” said Connor Brown, who has become a key penalty killer in Edmonton. “We weren’t happy with the call, and we put it behind us and just got the job done. It shows a lot about a character of this group.”
In the end, the Hockey Gods smiled on Edmonton on a night when the breaks went the other way. It was the kind of game where you feel like you beat two opponents, not just one.
Brown scored his third of the season on a goofy sequence of events, as Corey Perry ‘borrowed’ his stick, almost scored with it, then gave it back as Brown changed on the fly for him. Brown grabbed that twig, took a pass, then walked in and rifled a wrist shot over Connor Hellebuyck’s glove for a 3-1 Edmonton lead in the second period.
It all happened within about 15 seconds.
“I had one leg over the boards, and (Perry) just ripped it out of my hands as he skated by the bench, actually,” Brown said. “It was a little too small for him in the slot. I think he would have buried one if he had his own stick.”
Brown is slowly finding his way after a horrendous opening three-quarters of the season, right on cue to perhaps provide some support scoring in the playoffs. Evander Kane, meanwhile, stretched his scoreless drought to 17 games.
He’s been stuck on 21 goals since Feb. 19.
“This has probably been, I would have to say, the longest stretch I have not scored,” he said. “We’ve been creating some quality looks — we could have had three in Toronto, and our line had one. But yeah, I think part of it is just getting some cleaner that looks and some better scoring chances.”
If chances are the barometer, then Kane should be scoring any day now. He had six shots on net Tuesday, and three better-than-decent chances to score — including a breakaway from the blue line in. It’s just not going in for the big left-winger right now, though his line with Ryan McLeod and Perry generated nine shots and no goals on an even night’s work.
Coming home for a Thursday game against Los Angeles will be a lot less stressful with these two points in the standings. Somehow, the Oilers blew a game in Ottawa where they outshot the Senators 38-16, but they got their win in Winnipeg to avoid a pointless roadie.
“We feel like we could have gotten two of three this road trip,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But there are times during the season where we’ve won games that we didn’t deserve to win. Over a season that it works out.”
McDavid had two assists to close to within four points of the NHL’s scoring lead, where Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon sit with 123 points.