Walman's OT goal lifts Oilers past Senators

OTTAWA -- Jake Walman scored 2:24 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers recovered from a scoreless third period to defeat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

“He came in big,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of Walman, who was making his season debut after missing six games with an undisclosed injury. “We wanted some offense from him. We’d been missing that kind of player and he provided at the end.”

Walman beat Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark over the glove with a slap shot from the top of the slot in the last seconds of a 4-on-3 power play.

“It was a long time sitting out, so probably just a little relief,” Walman said of his emotions seeing the puck go in. “Just happy to be back. We’ve got a great team, I thought we played a great game and we were fortunate to win it.”

Isaac Howard scored his first NHL goal and Connor McDavid had a goal for the Oilers (3-3-1), who had lost three straight. Stuart Skinner made 21 saves for his 100th NHL win.

“It’s been quite the journey,” Skinner reminisced when asked about how he’s grown since his debut win against the Senators on Jan. 31, 2021. “I’m definitely miles ahead of that guy when I was 21 years old.”

Dylan Cozens and Thomas Chabot scored, and Ullmark made 22 saves for Ottawa (2-4-1), which entered the third period down 2-0.

“It was a good game; I liked our game a lot tonight,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “I didn’t like that we didn’t win, but it was a big step in the right direction. … It was a lot more like how we want to play. We talked about playing connected, I thought we saw a team who was on the same page tonight, for the most part.”

Adam Henrique had two shots in 13:17 of ice time in his 1,000th career NHL game. He is the first player to appear with Edmonton during the milestone.

McDavid gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 16:31 of the first period when he one-timed a centering pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a power play. It was his first goal in seven games this season.

“We don’t get too rattled about how things are going,” Knoblauch said of his team snapping its losing streak. “When times were tough, we could’ve really unraveled; we could’ve really fell apart. But we stuck with it and our composure was good.”

Howard, fresh out of the penalty box, put a one-timer five-hole on Ullmark to make it 2-0 at 0:49 of the second period. Leon Draisaitl fed Howard after McDavid forced a Ridly Greig turnover.

“It’s obviously super cool and going to be a moment I’ll remember forever,” Howard said. “To have those two guys (McDavid and Draisaitl) in on the goal is pretty special. A couple great plays by them.”

Cozens cut it to 2-1 at 0:13 of the third period when he beat Skinner blocker side with a wrist shot from the slot on a power play.

“I think we battled hard,” Cozens said. “I think we played a pretty good game. I mean, we’re down two going into the third and we find a way to tie it up and take it to overtime. Obviously, we’d like the win there, but I think we did a lot of good things.”

Chabot’s point shot made it through the crowd in front and past a heavily screened Skinner to tie it 2-2 at 1:49 and ultimately send the game to overtime.

“I think we saw the Ottawa Senators tonight,” Chabot said. “It’s plain and simple: we played to our identity and we played our game. We put pressure on them all night, we created a lot of chances. Obviously, some of them didn’t go in, but just the way we came back in the third and a huge goal by ‘Cozy’ to get us rolling on the power play.

“I mean, it [stinks] to lose and everybody’s [ticked] about the loss, but at the end of the day, it’s a step in the right direction, we feel like.”

NOTES: Mattias Ekholm assisted on Walman’s overtime winner; it was the first time two Edmonton defensemen factored on the same overtime goal since March 5, 2006 (Chris Pronger, Jaroslav Spacek). … Skinner improved to 6-1-0 in his career against Ottawa. … Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse had a game-high six blocks. … With his 72nd NHL goal, Thomas Chabot passed Chris Phillips for third most by a Senators defenseman.