GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Red Wings 2

DETROIT, MI - The Oilers engines were certainly revving in the Motor City with the Blue & Orange picking a 5-2 victory over Detroit in a spirited affair on Tuesday night.
The evening was a physical onewith a combined 32 minutes in penalties between the sides and almost as many post-whistle scrums.
"I thought there was some physicality to the game tonight," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We have people that can play that game. I thought there was emotion in the game tonight and we can handle ourselves in those situations."
"It was definitely emotional game," Warren Foegele said after the game. "They are physical, we are physical, we were definitely on our toes and we're big smiles after that win."
Edmonton's offence was provided by Foegele, who scored a pair including the game winner, as well as markers by Ryan McLeod, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane.
Jack Campbell got the start in his home state and the 31-year-old put in a solid performance on the evening. The Port Huron, Michigan native turned aside 30-of-32 shots on the night.
The Oilers will continue their four-game road trip with a stop in Philadelphia on Thursday to take on the Flyers.

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FIRST BLOOD

Coming into the break as the hottest team in the Western Conference with a 10-3-2 record and a .733 point percentage since Christmas, the Oilers didn't quite get the start they wanted to begin their post All-Star Weekend stretch.
After a solid few minutes of pressure in the Red Wings offensive zone to begin the game, the home side began to push back against the Blue & Orange, culminating in the game's opening marker by Tyler Bertuzzi. The 30-goal man from last season took advantage of a scramble in the Oilers defensive zone, with Lucas Raymond feeding a wide open Bertuzzi at the side of the Oilers net for the quick one-time goal a little over halfway through the opening frame.
The goal was only Bertuzzi's second of the season as the forward has struggled to maintain the near 40-goal pace the Sudbury, Ontario product was on in 2021-22 due to injury.
The Oilers were lucky to escape the first frame with just a 1-0 deficit, with a trio of Red Wings posts saving the day. The most egregious opportunity came off the stick of Robby Fabbri, who whiffed on a tap-in backhand opportunity on a rebound which trickled off Campbell's far post before it was cleared out of danger.

GOING BACK-TO-BACK

After a start the Oilers certainly didn't love, it took just 36 seconds in the middle frame to rectify the situation.
The Oilers offensive onslaught began with some excellent transition offence by Philip Broberg, who blitzed up the right side of the Red Wings zone. The Swede was then able to dissect the Detroit defence with a perfect feed to Ryan McLeod who was able to take his time and picked his spot high past Husso for his ninth goal of the season.
Edmonton lit the lamp again just over half-a-minute later, and it was Warren Foegele who quieted the Little Caesars Arena crowd.
The Oilers defence was able to spring Foegele and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on a two-on-one break and it was an absolute blast by the former which gave Edmonton their first advantage of the game. Nugent-Hopkins saucer feed landed directly in Foegele's wheelhouse for the one-timer and his sixth goal of the season.

SAVE OF THE GAME

With Edmonton leading by a goal in the third period and needing a stop against a surging Red Wings side, Jack Campbell was more than able to provide it.
After a favourable bounce sprung Jonatan Berggren on the partial break, the man affectionally known as 'Soup' flashed the leather on the young Swede to keep the Oilers 3-2 advantage intact.
Campbell would follow up the stop with another dynamite save less than a minute later, closing the wickets on a Dominik Kubalik backhand chance.
"Detroit has got a lot of speed. Their forward group is pretty impressive and they just found a couple of loose pucks, and that speed allowed them to come in," Campbell said about the stops. "It's my job to keep them out. Thankfully, we kept them out and the guys did the rest."
The stop helped the Edmonton netminder win his seventh straight decision and his eight consecutive start if you exclude a relief appearance back on Jan. 9 against the Los Angeles Kings.

TOP PERFORMER

Warren Foegele showed off just how competitive it is to be a part of the Oilers lineup on a night-in-night-out basis. The 26-year-old was the odd forward out of Head Coach Jay Woodcroft's 11-and-7 alignment in the final game before the NHL All-Star Break against the Chicago Blackhawks and he responded with a scintillating two-goal performance on Tuesday night.
"I thought he played a great game. It's one of the best games I've seen Warren Fogele play," Woodcroft said about his forward. "He should feel real good about himself and there's nobody more happy for him than his teammates and his coaching staff."
Foegele first notched his sixth on a howitzer of a one-timer 3:38 into the second period. The Markham, Ontario product followed his tally up with some hard net-front presence a little over eight minutes later.
Vincent Desharnais wristed a point shot towards the Red Wings net which deflected off Husso and off the crease crashing Foegele for goal number seven of the season by the Oiler. While his 2022-23 campaign has been sidelined at times due to injury, Foegele is on a 15-goal, 82-game pace which is well in line with his career average of roughly 14 goals per 82-games.

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft's overall assessment of the Oilers 5-2 win:
"I thought it was a good road win for our team. I thought there were some positives in the game. I really liked our first five minutes in the game, we came out and asserted the way we wanted to play. The other team pushed back and earned a goal on one of our breakout errors. I thought the first five, six minutes of the second period went accordingly for us and we found ways to make them pay for some of their mistakes. Then as the game wore on, there was more and more emotion to the game and we found contributions offensively from some unusual suspects. I thought our penalty kill was outstanding today and our power play, though mostly ineffective at the start, found a way to get a huge goal for us to kind of seal the game."
Woodcroft on the play of Jack Campbell and his two big third period stops:
"I thought they were big saves, but I would say this: Jack expects to make those saves and we expect Jack to make those saves. I just think he's laying good games down on top of good games. He's starting to build a little personal momentum for himself and I've seen that here pretty much since post Christmas. He's another guy that should feel real happy for himself. I know the coaching staff and his teammates feel real happy for him as well."

Evander Kane on the Oilers victory:
"It's a good win and good two points that we need to collect to keep ourselves high up in the standings and move on."
Kane on the Red Wings physical play and the Oilers answering the bell:
"In today's NHL, there are a lot of guys that feel they can get in there and the referees bail them out a lot. So it was a bit of a chippy, slimy game at the start of the second period and we got some guys on our team that don't mind answering the bell so we can we feel very confident and comfortable in those type of games."
Jack Campbell on the Oilers strong team performance against the Red Wings:
"The boys have been playing great leading up to the break and definitely wanted to continue where we left off. Detroit came out, played a really strong game in great building to play in. We came away with two big points. So a great way to start the road trip."