GAME STORY: Oilers 3, Maple Leafs 2 (OT)

TORONTO, ON - Helloooooooooo, Nurse!
Darnell Nurse took a feed from Connor McDavid and buried his 12th goal of the season just 17 seconds into overtime as the Oilers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in sudden death on Monday.

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FIRST BLOOD

The Oilers got a valuable depth contribution for the game's opening goal at the 6:15 mark of the first period as Josh Archibald went backhand five-hole on Michael Hutchinson on a breakaway for his sixth of the season. Jujhar Khaira won a defensive zone faceoff, Kris Russell chipped the puck into the neutral zone, T.J. Brodie missed it completely and Archibald beat Morgan Rielly into the Leafs zone before tucking the tally between the goalie's legs.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Edmonton's overtime winner, as they usually are, was a thing of beauty as Leon Draisaitl, McDavid and Nurse worked their magic to score the deciding goal. It started with back-to-back saucer passes as Draisaitl used his marquee backhand to spring McDavid in on a two-on-one with Nurse and the Oilers captain flipped a perfect forehand feed to the defenceman who made no mistrake on Michael Hutchinson with a hard, quick wrist shot.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Just past the five-minute mark of the middle frame, Mike Smith made his most impressive stop of the night, thwarting Ilya Mikheyev's one-timer on a pass from Alex Kerfoot as the Leafs broke in on an abbreviated two-on-one rush. The Oilers netminder darted across his crease to make a blocker save and smother the loose puck to draw a whistle. Smith's final denial on Auston Matthews in OT was also a gem as he finished with 29 saves for his 12th win in 17 starts this year.

TURNING POINT

Two nights ago, the Oilers fell victim to several tough-luck bounces on the majority of Toronto's goals in the 4-3 overtime decision, but on Monday they had a big one go their way for the equalizing goal 80 seconds into the third period. Adam Larsson stepped into a slap shot from the point that deflected off the backside of Kyle Turris and past Hutchinson for Turris' second of the season.

TOP PERFORMER

Nurse scored the sudden-death winner, played 28:18 and recorded four shots with three hits. His time on ice was more than six minutes more than any other defenceman in the game and more than five minutes more than McDavid. He now leads the NHL in goals by defencemen and all of them have come at even strength, putting him just three off the league lead in that category.

FACT CHECK

With Archibald's early tally, the Oilers improved to 15-2-0 this season when scoring the first goal of the game, capped off by Nurse's sudden-death winner, which was the third of his career, tying Eric Brewer for the most OT goals by a defenceman in franchise history.

NEXT UP

Thanks to the NHL schedule adjustments announced on Sunday night, the Oilers will stay in Eastern Canada for one more day to make up one of their postponed games in Montreal on Tuesday. The team will be back at Rogers Place on Friday as they host the Calgary Flames for the seventh Battle of Alberta of the season, while the Vancouver Canucks come to town on Saturday.

PARTING WORDS

"As a team we knew we were capable of getting in the win column tonight," Nurse said as the Oilers snapped their streak of four straight losses to the Leafs. "It was a big win for us and something to build off of going into this final stretch of the season."
"We definitely played a stronger second and a better third and Smitty made some big saves, especially the one in overtime on Matthews that allowed us to come back the other way," Turris said. "We're coming together as a team. Down the stretch here in the last 20 games we want to be making strides in the right direction and getting hot at the right time going into the playoffs."
"I was happy for Turris, he's gone through a lot," Head Coach Dave Tippett said of the veteran forward who ended up missing two and a half weeks of game action this month due to the NHL's COVID protocol. "If anybody deserved to have one go in off his ass, it's him."