EDMONTON — Mattias Ekholm felt his Edmonton Oilers were on the right track after an overtime loss earlier in the week. They proved the veteran defenceman correct based on how they played Friday.
Most of the issues that had been ailing the Oilers for so much of the young season were rectified in a 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. They dominated this game.
“That’s what we didn’t do on a couple nights there earlier on in the year where we played really well to start but we faded a little bit away,” Ekholm said.
The Oilers finally looked like the Stanley Cup contender they’re supposed to be. This was a decisive result that easily could have been even more one-sided.
They limited Pittsburgh’s chances, and goaltender Stuart Skinner was there to make the saves whenever there was a lapse.
Skinner’s best stops came in the third period after the Oilers were already up three goals. He turned away Erik Karlsson in the slot, denied Noel Acciari on a two-on-one and got a shoulder on a Kris Letang shot from the slot in the final seconds to preserve the clean sheet.
“He earned that shutout,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “That was one of his easier games to play, but he came up with some big saves.”
This was easily Skinner’s best performance of the season and the first time he didn’t allow at least three goals in a game.
“He was great,” winger Viktor Arvidsson said. “He saved us a bunch of times and had a great performance.”
Skinner’s shutout helped the Oilers kill off both Penguins power plays, just the second time they’ve held an opponent’s man advantage in check. Both attempts came in the final six minutes with the outcome decided.
“That gives you a lot of pride in the group,” Skinner said. “We want to do well on our PK. The guys were obviously fighting for me but fighting for getting a couple of kills, too.”
The defence helped the offence get going.
The Oilers tied a season high with four goals, even though it took them 50 shots to do it and they got little from the first-unit power play, which remained intact despite practice tinkering this week. It was the second-unit’s Ekholm, with Corey Perry providing the screen in front, who got the team’s power-play goal.
The game was about perseverance until superstar Leon Draisaitl kick-started the scoring 13 minutes into the second period.
“It’s nice to see our guys — especially with the way the season’s started — that they didn’t get frustrated,” Knoblauch said. “They stuck with it.”
The crafty Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got his first goal 16 seconds into the third period to eliminate any hope of a Penguins comeback. Vasily Podkolzin had his first point as an Oiler, an assist on Evan Bouchard’s second-period goal.
But the offensive standout was Arvidsson. It took eight games, but the high-profile offseason addition finally recorded his first points with his new team. He had three primary helpers.
“That’s the Viktor I know,” said Ekholm, Arvidsson’s longtime teammate in Nashville. “He’s always the hardest working out there.
“He’s getting more and more comfortable every night where he gets to play here and get chemistry with his linemates. He showed what he can really do.”
It’s just a matter of Arvidsson getting a goal now. He recorded four shots and had four more attempts that failed to reach the net. He was all around the offensive zone, providing the spark next to Draisaitl that was hoped for when the Oilers signed him to a two-year contract July 1.
As for scoring, same goes for Zach Hyman, who got his first point of the season when he set up Nugent-Hopkins’ goal. Hyman had six shots and five missed attempts but, like Arvidsson, is still in search of his first marker.
“I’m not sure how many shots they had from the slot, but I think it was pretty high between the two of them,” Knoblauch said.
“I thought they played really good games, had so many scoring chances. It’s only a matter of time. You have that many chances and it’s got to go in soon.”
It wasn’t perfect, but this was as close to a signature performance for the Oilers as they’ve had. Even some of the best aspects of their game were taken up a notch.
The Oilers have been an excellent possession team for the first couple of weeks, but Friday was next level. They had 21 straight shots on goal from the 9:13 mark of the first period to 7:49 of the second as part of a 50-27 advantage.
“It was an amazing team effort,” Skinner said. “That was definitely the way we wanted to play, start to finish.”
It didn’t hurt that the Penguins were in the building. This was the Oilers’ eighth straight win against Pittsburgh, a streak that dates to Feb. 13, 2019.
The Oilers can’t control who they play. No demerits issued here because the Penguins were the opponent.
How they’ll be judged from here is if they can take that blueprint forward on a three-game road trip and use it to build on their third win of the season.
“We played on both sides of the puck really good for 60 minutes,” Arvidsson said. “That was a great statement game. That’s how we have to play, and that’s how we’re going to be good.”
(Top photo of Mattias Ekholm, left, celebrating his third-period goal: Perry Nelson / Imagn Images)
