GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Devils 1

EDMONTON, AB – Seventh heaven.

The Edmonton Oilers extended their win streak to seven games by defeating the New Jersey Devils 4-1 at Rogers Place on the back of 26 saves from netminder Calvin Pickard, who secured his first career victory with the Blue & Orange on Sunday afternoon.

"You can't put too much pressure on yourself when you don't play very often, but I feel good in practice and I wanted to just keep it going and I thought we played a great game all the way through – very defensive, really good special teams and we deserved to win," Pickard said.

Stuart Skinner had started the last seven games for the Oilers, but Pickard was given the nod for Sunday's matinee and turned in a terrific First Star performance between the pipes by limiting the offensive cast of New Jersey that includes Jack Hughes, Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt to only one goal on 27 shots for his first NHL win since Jan. 28, 2022.

"He was unbelievable. Obviously, he's stayed ready," defenceman Darnell Nurse said. "It shows all the work that he's been putting in and he came out, made some huge saves for us – especially down the line there at the end. It was awesome to see."

Edmonton's penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4 against the NHL's top-ranked power play in the Devils, which came into Sunday's game operating at 32.4 percent, and has now killed off 24 of their last 25 short-handed assignments as part of this seven-game Oilers win streak.

Evan Bouchard extended his point streak to 11 games (5G, 11A) with the game-winning goal on the power play in the second period, while Connor McDavid followed suit by making it nine straight games with a point (6G, 16A) after hitting double-digit goals on the season with a tap-in tally during the opening five minutes of the final frame.

Evander Kane added an empty-net goal, along with Derek Ryan opening the scoring before the first intermission with his third tally of the campaign.

Edmonton improves to 12-12-1 with the victory and will look to continue building on their strong seven-game run on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

FIRST PERIOD

Connor Brown is still in search of his first Oilers goal, but the breakthrough for the Blue & Orange finally came before the first intermission.

Brown had the puck in the back of the New Jersey net at 15:28 of the first period after it pinballed off the leg of goalie Akira Schmid and over the line, but a challenge from the Devils bench determined that Evander Kane got in the way of the netminder inside the blue paint, ultimately negating the celebrations for the winger's first goal in an Oilers uniform.

"You almost have to laugh at the way she's going right now, but for me, I think I'm contributing a lot with penalty-killing other aspects, so just focus on what I'm doing well and just know that the bounces will come," Brown said.

At the other end of the ice, Calvin Pickard was getting the start between the pipes in place of Stuart Skinner, who'd made seven consecutive starts for the Oilers before Sunday afternoon. The Devils found themselves on a three-on-one rush in the minute that followed Brown's disallowed goal, but the 31-year-old netminder parried away a big blocker stop to keep things scoreless through the first five minutes of regulation.

Edmonton's power play failed to cash in on its first opportunity, but the penalty kill turned away two looks for the Devils with the man advantage in the opening 20 minutes and would make it 24 of their last 24 penalties killed off after the Oilers extended their win streak to seven games. New Jersey came into Rogers Place on Sunday afternoon with the League's top power play this season at 34.2 percent.

"I think we're killing with a lot of confidence," Brown said. "Even the ones that we are killing, we're finding things that we can improve on. We're trying to add as much pressure as possible, and I think that we're killing well and I think we can get better too, so it's a good sign."

Derek Ryan is one of those principal penalty-killers for the Oilers and he got them on the board with 1:24 remaining before the intermission when the 36-year-old received Sam Gagner's pass from below the goal line and chipped his third goal of the campaign this season short-side past Schmid.

SECOND PERIOD

Make it 11 GAMES for Evan Bouchard and his incredible point streak.

The 24-year-old blueliner blasted his second power-blay 'Bouch Bomb' in as many games beyond Akira Schmid at 5:40 of the middle frame to double Edmonton's advantage and push his point streak to 11 games.

Bouchard already became the second-ever Oilers defenceman to record a double-digit point streak on Friday when he joined Paul Coffey in that small statistical category with a goal and assist in a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild.

The Oilers were leading 2-0 on the scoreboard and doing a good job at stifling New Jersey's star-studded offence with only 12 shots allowed through two periods.

THIRD PERIOD

That's about as easy as they'll come for Connor McDavid.

It might've been an easy tap-in for the captain into an open cage, but the work put in by Evander Kane and Zach Hyman behind the New Jersey goal to steal the puck from a stranded Akira Schmid made the play happen, as Kane popped the puck out front to his generational centre to reach double digits for goals.

With all eyes on Bouchard's point streak, McDavid has quietly assembled a nine-game run of his own with six goals and 16 assists over that span.

The Devils got on the board through Jesper Bratt just 30 seconds after McDavid made it a three-goal lead to spoil Calvin Pickard's shutout, but after the Devils put in their best push of the game with 15 shots over the final period, Kane completed the 4-1 victory in the final few minutes when he iced the game with an empty-netter.

Calvin held down the fort, including making a big double save on Jack Hughes before the Oilers went down the ice and finished the game off on Kane's empty-net goal.

"When they pull the goalie, there's going to be some looks, especially with a lot of skill over there," Pickard said. "So I thought we did a really good job and kind of iced it right away."

PARTING WORDS

Desharnais on pulling themselves back up to a .500 win percentage:

"I don't think a lot of people would have thought that seven games ago, but it just shows that we have the team to do it. We have the team to make playoffs. We have the team to go all the way. We just have to do it every day. It's every day in practice and in games. It's not just, 'Alright, there's a game'. We flip the switch and we go. It's a habit, and I think we've turned the boat around and we keep building our confidence are going to get better and better."

Desharnais on the keys to the penalty kill's recent success:

"I think we're connected. We were reading off each other really well and that's what we've been kind of building at – not being robots and not just going from point A to point B, but reading off each other, read the play and if you think you can go, just go and putting pressure; not giving them as much time and space and I think we did a really good job. We blocked a lot of shots tonight. That's a key for a PK. If we don't block a lot, it's going to be tough to be consistent. But overall, I think our PK was solid. We've just got to keep building."

Nurse on the Oilers improving team defence:

"We're making teams come through five guys and then obviously, our goalies have made some huge saves at big moments and I think the commitment to defence throughout the whole group is showing. It's the reason why we're in the position and climbing our way out of the spot that we're in, because we've really committed and buttoned down on the defensive side and that's not so much just sitting back, it's just playing a more simple game offensively and sensing danger when things aren't maybe going to bounce in the right direction. We're not taking that chance. We're having guys back and making teams come through five [players]." 

Knoblauch on his team's goaltending through this seven-game win streak:

"I don't think anyone's gone through a seven-game winning streak without good goaltending. Your special teams have to be good, and I think each night we've won the special teams battle or at least tied it, and then, the goaltending has been really rock solid. Any team that has success needs good goaltending."