GAME RECAP: Maple Leafs 5, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB - Colton Sceviour notched his first goal in Blue & Orange, but a two-goal night from Auston Mathews and a 35-save performance from Jack Campbell condemned the Oilers to their sixth-straight defeat on Tuesday night in a 5-1 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place.
Sceviour broke Campbell's shutout bid 5:26 into the third period to cut the deficit to two before Morgan Rielly responded 1:10 later to restore Toronto's three-goal advantage and put the game out of reach for Edmonton. Matthews added his second of the night with less than four minutes remaining to reach 20 goals on the season and help the Maple Leafs record their 20th win of the campaign.
The Oilers fall to 16-11-0 in the fifth game of a six-game homestand that concludes Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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FIRST BLOOD

Leon Draisaitl was booked for roughing call in the final minute of the first period, and the Leafs took advantage. Matthews increased his point streak to 10 games when John Tavares fought for the puck in the slot and pushed it out towards Toronto's leading scorer, who quickly ripped home his 19th goal of the season from the left of Koskinen with 35 seconds remaining before the first intermission.
The NHL's second-ranked powerplay behind the Oilers has been extremely effective as of late, registering 11 goals on their last 21 opportunities with the man advantage.

SAVE OF THE GAME

With Edmonton on a late powerplay of their own in the second frame, it took a sharp reaction save from Campbell to deny Draisaitl on a clean 1-on-1 look with the left pad and keep it a three-goal lead for Toronto heading into the intermission.

TURNING POINT

Matthews' power-play goal in the final minute of the first period deflated Edmonton heading into the intermission before the Maple Leafs scored twice in the second period through Wayne Simmonds and TJ Brodie to lead 3-0 heading into the final 20 minutes.

TOP PERFORMER

Campbell seemingly had an answer for every Oilers opportunity until Sceviour broke the Leafs netminder's shutout bid a quarter of the way through the final frame. The Oilers outshot the Leafs 36-25 on the night, but ran into a hot Toronto netminder that now owns a 15-5-0 record this season.

PARTING WORDS

Warren Foegele on his assessment of the defeat to the Maple Leafs:
"I think you just said it there, a lot of good chances and none went in."
"Just keep pounding the rock. We're not going to quit. We've got to keep battling every night, playing simple, and keep pounding on that rock because it's going to chip. It didn't happen tonight, but we've got to keep going. There's no easy way to get out of this, and the only way to get out of it is believing in each other, supporting each other, and keep pounding away."

Sceviour on the Oilers struggling to convert chances as a group:
"You don't want to get out of it by changing your game trying to do something that's not there and forcing mistakes that way. I think the most frustrating part about the whole thing has been if you look at the last three or four games, I think we've played (well) in stretches... When we give up opportunities, we give up Grade-A plus chances. I think that's probably the thing we need to get out of our game the most. I think those chances we're giving up, you just can't afford to give them up against good players in the NHL because they're going to put them into the back of your net. That's what's happening right now."
Associate Coach Jim Playfair on the Oilers struggles after a positive start to the season:
"I think it's pretty evident our special teams carried us through a lot of situations that crept into our game and our 5-on-5 play. Now the special teams are off, and our 5-on-5 isn't sustaining ourselves through the 60 minutes. We obviously have to get back. The work we have to put in is continuing to develop our 5-on-5 play, continue to try to push the game, and not get frustrated when things don't go our way. I think that's going to become the best part that comes out of this situation we're going through right now. We're going to improve areas that we have to improve to be good as we move along."