GAME STORY: Oilers 3, Jets 0

WINNIPEG, MB - Rest is a weapon.
Playing their first game in a week, the Oilers showcased their fresh legs on Saturday and scored a pair of power-play goals to beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 in the lone Hockey Night in Canada matchup.
Mike Smith also made 26 saves between the pipes for his third shutout of the season.

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FIRST BLOOD

The Jets penalty killers kept the Oilers power-play unit at bay three times and almost made it four in a row until Tyson Barrie's blast from the point beat Connor Hellebuyck at the 12-minute mark of the middle frame with 33 seconds to go in Neal Pionk's hooking infraction to make it 1-0 Edmonton. Kailer Yamamoto dropped the puck back to Barrie at the point and the defenceman passed it to Connor McDavid before getting it right back for a booming one-timer that resulted in his sixth goal of the season.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Holding a slim 1-0 lead in the third period, the Oilers got a valuable insurance marker from their top forward line as Jesse Puljujarvi completed a perfect passing play for his 10th goal of the season. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl played keep-away behind the Jets net until McDavid drew a pair of defenders to him. The decoy freed up Puljujarvi in front and McDavid made a marvellous backhand pass to him, allowing the young Finn to flick a top-shelf shot past Hellebuyck and extend the Oilers lead to 2-0 at the 6:37 mark.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Having not played in a week, the well-rested Oilers had plenty of jump in the opening frame that resulted in multiple breakaway opportunities, but Hellebuyck stood tall to keep the game scoreless through 20 minutes. The best of the batch came on Yamamoto, who got sprung in alone by Dominik Kahun with 10:56 to go in the period, but Hellebuyck made a good read on the forehand deke and stuck out his left pad to stymie the scoring chance.

TURNING POINT

The Oilers ended up scoring twice on the power play but the Jets had some chances on the man advantage as well; however, Smith stopped all of their opportunities including a key denial on Mark Scheifele late in the second period. After Darnell Nurse jumped up on a shorthanded rush, Scheifele was able to get in alone on Smith going back the other way but the veteran netminder made a superb save to keep the score 1-0 Edmonton through 40 minutes.

TOP PERFORMER

For the third time this season, Smith didn't allow a single goal and added another goose egg to his career total to give him 42. The 39-year-old boosted his save percentage to .921 with the perfect showing.

FACT CHECK

With his assist on Barrie's power-play goal in the second, McDavid became the first player to hit 70 points this season. Then, with his helper on Puljujarvi's insurance marker in the third, the Oilers captain achieved the most points by a player in an expansion-era season (since 1967-68) in which clubs contested a schedule of 56 games or less, surpassing Jaromir Jagr (70 points in 48 games) and Eric Lindros (70 points in 46 games) during the 1994-95 campaign.

NEXT UP

After going a week without playing, the Oilers will finally have a chance to get back into a game rhythm for a few days as they'll host the Montreal Canadiens on Monday and Wednesday at Rogers Place. Edmonton is scheduled for a four-day break after that before heading back to Winnipeg for two more road matchups with the Jets the following Monday and Wednesday.

PARTING WORDS

"It's a massive win," said McDavid, who played 24:38. "Any time you're coming down the stretch and you're playing teams ahead of you, you want to beat them and tighten the gap. Tonight was a big win for that... We can't just float our way into the playoffs. We've got to put a couple wins together."
"I thought we did a lot of good things tonight," said Smith, who improved to 15-4-2. "I thought we were okay in the first, did some good things and had some chances. And then we just built the game in the second and third, got better and better, got our legs underneath us and did a lot of the things we'd been talking about the last few days in practice. Credit to the group, we've had a bit of a layoff here and that's never easy to come into a game like that. I'm really impressed with how we handled ourselves."
"We were fresh, we had pretty good legs, our power play came through and got us a couple of big goals," said Head Coach Dave Tippett. "Everybody in the lineup contributed and that's what we're looking for."