*Photo from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle*
The victories continue to pile up in Edmonton. Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist, Ryan McLeod had an identical line, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night in Edmonton.
With the win, the Oilers set a franchise record for longest win streak, reaching 11 straight wins to improve to 24-15-1 and have risen all the way from last to 4th place in the Pacific Division. Bouchard and McLeod were the leaders on the scoresheet for the Oilers as the only players with two points.
Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said of the win that "I thought it was a competitive, good hockey game. It’s a good team over there, lots of skill and they defend really well actually for how much skill they have. Obviously, we showed some composure again and stuck with it, so it’s another huge win for us."
Auston Matthews scored just 27 seconds into the game for the Maple Leafs, making it 1-0 on the only goal of the first period. Morgan Rielly made it a 2-0 Maple Leafs lead with his 7th goal of the season 10:52 into the second period. At the 15:41 mark of the second, Draisaitl scored his 21st goal of the season to make it a 2-1 game.
Derek Ryan scored 2:27 into the 3rd period for the Oilers, tying the game 2-2 on his 4th goal of the season, with McLeod and Mattias Janmark assisting. McLeod then scored at the 16:55 mark of the period to make it 3-2 Oilers on his 8th goal of the season. With 1:33 left on the clock, Bouchard scored an empty net goal to seal the win.
McLeod said of his goal that "I was looking pass the whole way. I drifted a little bit out and at the last second looked at the net and saw a little lane and took it and it went in. I just try to get to the net as much as I can, and luckily I got a little wrap and a little bit of room. Connor kind of pulled everyone to him, so it worked out well."
It was Stuart Skinner who got the start in net for the Oilers, getting the win to improve to 19-9-1 through 29 starts. Skinner stopped 25 of the 27 shots the Maple Leafs sent at him, good for a .926 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Maple Leafs on the other end of the ice was Martin Jones, who got stuck with a loss. Jones turned aside 28 out of the 31 shots on goal the Oilers had as Toronto lost their 4th straight game, giving him a .903 save percentage. His record now stands at 8-5-1 in 15 games.
Matthews said of the loss that "We did a lot of good things. We ran into a good team playing with a lot of confidence. It's frustrating. Obviously we’d like to not be giving up these leads, but I think on the positive side, there’s a lot of good things that we are doing, and it’s just a matter of being consistent executing on some of these opportunities that we have later in games."
Both teams get back in action on Thursday night. Skinner is likely to start for the Oilers as they look to push their win streak to 12 games when they face the Seattle Kraken. Jones is the expected Toronto starter when they take on the Calgary Flames.
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