WHAT'S NEXT
The Oilers three-game road trip comes to an end in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. The game can be seen at 5 p.m. MST on Sportsnet Oilers or heard on 630 CHED and the Oilers Radio Network.
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"I thought for sure we were the better team and definitely deserved a little bit better tonight," said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had four shots on goal and led all forwards with 23:37 TOI. "But credit to them, they held on, played good defence and their goalie was hot… We should have at least scored one goal, maybe a handful."
"This was a game I feel like we should have had," added forward Pat Maroon, who had a pair of shots on goal. "We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them. Their goalie just made some good saves."
Similar to their first matchup of the season late last month at Rogers Place that ultimately resulted in a much higher-scoring 6-4 Toronto victory, the Oilers let the Leafs seize the early momentum as Jake Gardiner's point shot deflected off Zach Hyman and snuck through Laurent Brossoit's pads mere moments after puck-drop.
The rest of the all-Canadian matchup was completely different than their last one, however.
In their previous battle, the Leafs were able to keep pouring on the offence in the opening frame and took a 3-1 lead into intermission, but the Oilers didn't let that happen this time around.
Thanks to a couple of strong shifts from the fourth line of Mark Letestu, Zack Kassian and Drake Caggiula, the visitors controlled the play in the latter half of the period but trailed 1-0 at the break.
The middle frame was jam-packed with penalties as the Oilers took a pair of minors and the Leafs were sent to the sin bin three times. Neither side was able to capitalize, though, as Toronto maintained their 1-0 lead into the third.
Though the Oilers weren't able to net the equalizer in the second, it wasn't due to a lack of opportunities. McDavid was denied on a breakaway as McElhinney got his stick down to turn away the captain's backhand five-hole attempt, and Edmonton also couldn't convert on a two-man advantage late in the frame.
With both Roman Polak and Mitch Marner in the box, the Oilers unleashed a series of attempts, but none were able to find twine, including a Leon Draisaitl bullet one-timer off the post.
It was more of the same in the final frame as the Oilers continued their onslaught, including another power-play chance earlier in the period, but they just couldn't get a puck past the Leafs netminder.
After getting outshot 9-2 to start the game, the Oilers responded with a 39-14 advantage the rest of the game.
Brossoit rebounded well after the tough opening goal, turning aside the remaining 22 shots he faced in a hard-luck loss one night after backstopping his team to a 6-2 victory in Montreal.
"We didn't win, and that's the most obvious thing, but we were happy with our game," said Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan. "We played hard, we were very competitive. We've strung two good games together now, but unfortunately we didn't get the result. Tonight the puck wasn't going to cross the line for us, it didn't matter what we did… I can't complain about the effort of our group."
After a hectic weekend that saw them play back-to-back high-intensity games against Canadian rivals, the Oilers get a break on Monday before closing out their three-game road trip on Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
