Pickard makes 35 saves, Oilers defeat Hurricanes to end 5-game skid

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Calvin Pickard made 35 saves, and the Edmonton Oilers ended a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Saturday.

Leon Draisaitl had two assists to extend his point streak to 11 games (nine goals, seven assists) for the Oilers (35-21-4). Adam Henrique and Corey Perry scored.

“The last two games we did a much better job of digging in and competing a lot harder," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Tonight, we were able to keep the puck out of the net with ‘Picks’ making some big saves, especially in the third period, where you’ve got a fragile team.

“When you have a lead late in the game and you haven’t won for a while, you tend to shrink. You don’t want to make a mistake. You just end up defending all the time. I think that game will be very important for us to build some confidence.”

Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes (34-22-4), who have lost three of their past four and six of eight. Frederik Andersen made 28 saves.

“The first period was the worst period for us,” Aho said. “You’d like to see us starting better. Guys are working hard, and we always get to our game. We’ve just got to bring it from the first shift.”

Edmonton scored short-handed to take a 1-0 lead at 5:08 of the first period. Andersen made a left-pad save on Mattias Janmark, but the rebound deflected off Henrique and into the net.

“Just off [the] body. You’re just trying to make the read there, and ‘Janny’ made a good heads up play,” Henrique said. “You’ve got to be there, you’ve got to keep going to those positions. That’s where you find those things.”

In addition to giving up a short-handed goal, the Hurricanes went 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period.

“The start wasn’t good, the urgency there,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Giving up a ‘shorty,’ you’re not going to recover from that too often. A game like this, against that team, you can’t gift them one. That’s what I thought we did there.”

The Oilers made it 2-0 at 16:29 of the second period when Perry scored at the left post off a backhand pass from Draisaitl from the right face-off circle.

“Obviously, we’ve been struggling a little bit and couldn’t find our game for a while there,” Draisaitl said. “Tonight was a really good effort by us. It’s a man’s game in here every time. [Carolina] plays hard and we knew that coming in. If you’re not ready for it, they’ll run you out of the building. So we were ready for it and played a good game.”

The Hurricanes scored on the power play to cut the lead to 2-1 at 4:26. Mikko Rantanen made a sharp pass from the top of the right circle to Aho for a backdoor tap-in. Shayne Gostisbehere had the secondary assist for his 400th NHL point.

Pickard preserved the lead by making several big saves late in the third period. He stopped Rantanen’s quick shot in close at 13:56, then made a right-pad save on Aho on a breakaway with 50 seconds left.

Evan Bouchard scored an empty-net goal with one second remaining on the power play for the 3-1 final.

“He’s great. He’s in there just battling,” Henrique said of Pickard. “He’s making the big saves. If there’s rebounds, he’s battling right to the bitter end to cover it up or get it out of there.”

NOTES: With an assist on Bouchard’s goal, Oilers forward Connor McDavid became the third-fastest player to 700 assists (699 games). Wayne Gretzky reached the milestone in 478 games, and Mario Lemieux did it in 579. … Pickard is 4-0-1 in six games against the Hurricanes. … Draisaitl’s seven-game goal streak ended (eight goals). … The Hurricanes have scored one goal or fewer in four of their past seven games.