Edmonton Oilers had to go through overtime and a massive comeback to defeat the Washington Capitals at their Rogers Place. Eventually, Leon Draisaitl‘s goal was the decider, earning two points for the hosts who now have eight wins since the start of the season. The result, in the end, 4-3 for the hosts.
The clash of two leading teams in their respective divisions really met all the expectations. The fans saw everything which makes one hockey game exciting.
“We’ve done it all year pretty much, coming back from deficits,” said Draisaitl, the hero of the match. “We believe in here. We just needed to clean up a few things, get a little cleaner and a little more direct towards the net.”
The Oilers needed this win badly, as they lost the previous two events, without scoring a single goal. Furthermore, it was a derby, and beating the rival such as Washington like this could be a turning point of the season.
Edmonton took the lead when Darnell Nurse tried to send a pass towards one of his teammates, but the puck deflected off Dmitry Orlov‘s stick and entered his own net. That was the only score in the first period, in which the Capitals didn’t do anything special on the ice. But what happened in the second, just a few expected.
The guests scored three goals, dazzling the Oilers who didn’t know what hit them. From 11 shots three went in, while on the other side, Washington’s goalie Braden Holtby saved every attempt of his rivals. He would end the night with 36 saves. In less than a minute, the visiting side turned the result upside down, with Jakub Vrana netting the first goal, and Alexandar Ovechkin scoring his eighth of the season.
Matthew Benning had to go out for two minutes because of game delay, and the Capitals used the advantage on the ice to increase the lead. It was Ovechkin again who scored, and this was his 250th power-play goal in the NHL.
It didn’t look good for the Oilers, and the third straight defeat was knocking on the door. The hosts’ head coach Dave Tippett didn’t want his team to go down that easy.
“We just said, ‘Let’s stick with it in the third period,’ and we got some momentum, we got rolling. We got that first one and we were back in the game,” he revealed the journalists what he said to his players between the second and the final period.
Draisaitl cut the deficit with his first score of the night. With just a little bit over one and a half minute until the end, Connor McDavid leveled the result.
The same guy would set up a game-winner for Draisaitl 1:18 into the overtime, for an explosion of joy inside the Rogers Place.
The next game of the Oilers is this Sunday against the Florida Panthers at home. On the other side, the Capitals passed the middle of their five-game road trip. Now they travel to Vancouver to meet the Canucks, this Friday, before facing the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
