GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Blue Jackets 4 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – How's that for a response?

Jake Walman recorded two goals and an assist, including the tying goal shorthanded with 58 seconds left, while Connor McDavid had a pair of goals and Jack Roslovic netted the winning tally on Monday night after the Edmonton Oilers rallied to secure a 5-4 overtime victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"We create that standard," Roslovic said. "We create that standard every day, and we want to keep on pushing and getting better. There are times that we're gonna fall behind, but it's just getting back on the horse and doing things like we did tonight."

Trailing 3-1 entering the final 20 minutes, McDavid dazzled with two terrific individual efforts in the third period before Walman received a fortunate bounce off the stick of Mathieu Olivier while shorthanded in the last minute of regulation, tying the game and forcing it to overtime, where Roslovic capped off the 5-4 comeback with a backhand-breakaway finish just 56 seconds into sudden death.

The victory gave the Oilers two valuable points and a much-needed victory coming off Saturday's heavy defeat on home ice to the Avalanche before they head out on the road for a season-long seven-game road trip, which starts Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers with the first of back-to-back games.

"It was a big win," McDavid said. "This was a big win at home before going on a long stretch here after what happened on Saturday, so it felt like a little bit more of a bigger game than you usually get in November, and I thought it showed. We hung on right to the end."

A DETERMINED RESPONSE

That's how you start answering back.

With plenty of purpose in every one of their actions during the opening 20 minutes on Monday, the Oilers came out against the Blue Jackets on home ice with the emotional and physical response they'd hoped for coming off Saturday's humbling loss to the Avalanche.

The Oilers weren't about to brush off being buried by Colorado, knowing that each player had to look themselves in the mirror and do that little bit extra individually to help pull the club out of its collective struggles, which culminated in their 9-1 defeat and a hard lesson that they needed to have.

Forward Trent Frederic was one of those who wore the criticism post-game on Saturday by saying he needed to be better, and that nobody in the League would want to fight a guy who's scored one goal in 15 games. But he was the first to try to inject some physicality and emotion for the Oilers by scrapping none other than the NHL's heavyweight champion in Mathieu Olivier, who gave him a few hard punches and a black right eye while trying to spark the bench.

McDavid said that was the exact reaction they needed to give the group some jump after calling on everyone to do a little bit extra after Saturday's loss.

"Huge credit to Freddy for trying to give us a little spark. Can't say enough good things about him. That was huge," the captain said. "Not a lot of guys take on that guy. So as I said, huge credit to him. We talked about guys maybe getting out of their comfort zone a little bit, and guys responded. I thought there was good energy. Guys came out crashing and banging and a little bit more emotion, which was all good stuff."

"There was a lot to like in that game, and I've got to give a huge shoutout to Freddy," Walman added. "That's a tough opponent and a big boy, and there are very few guys that would do that sort of thing. He stepped up for this team and I'm proud of him for that."

Leon Draisaitl was trying to lead by example by chasing down Kirill Marchenko to make a vital stick lift after committing the giveaway that led to a Columbus odd-man rush, and Vasily Podkolzin delivered a heavy hit on Denton Mateychuk on the forecheck soon after as one of 10 first-period hits from the Oilers.

With five hits tonight, Podkolzin now has the sixth most hits in the NHL among active forwards with 57 - sitting behind only Yakov Trenin (76), Kiefer Sherwood (71), Colton Dach (66), Ryan Lomberg (62), Emil Heinemen (60) and Garnet Hathaway (58).

Forward Curtis Lazar getting involved in front of the net with Jake Christiansen after a whistle past the eight-minute mark led to a four-on-four scenario, which became a Columbus four-on-three when Evan Bouchard slashed Adam Fantilli on the hands to send the Oilers to the penalty kill for the first time.

Marchenko struck the post on the man advantage, but after it looked like the Oilers escaped danger when Bouchard exited the box, defenceman Ivan Provorov was able to put a shot on goal through traffic that found its way through to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 11:42 of the frame.

Bouchard would feel the consequences of his costly penalty by sitting for the rest of the period, but the defenceman would still have a big part to play setting up one of McDavid's comeback goals during the final frame.

"Highs and lows, he said. "And you get back out there and just try to make plays."

The Oilers continued to press after going behind to the Blue Jackets, with Savoie stealing the puck off a defenceman for a partial breakaway inside the offensive zone and nearly tucking it in around the outstretched left skate of netminder Jet Greaves, but the rookie couldn't come up with the quick response.

Before the intermission, the Oilers were rewarded after defenceman Jake Walman's long wrist shot managed to find its way past the glove of Greaves and under the crossbar for an unassisted marker to make it 1-1 with 2:32 left in the period.

Stuart Skinner made a terrific save on Charlie Coyle to keep it level after 20 minutes, coming up with the crucial stop on the centre's one-on-one opportunity after Ty Emberson flattened Yegor Chinakhov at the blueline.

STRAIGHT JACKETS

The commitment was there, but it was the Blue Jackets who broke through.

"Second period, I thought we didn't execute very well," Knoblauch said. "We didn't break out the puck very well, so we got caught in the defensive zone quite a bit and spent a little more time than we would have liked to there. But this team, a lot of credit to them because no matter what happens and what adversity they face, they've usually been able to overcome it and just play their game."

After Walman had the puck broken up inside the Columbus blueline, Sean Monahan slid a rebound from Kent Johnson's shot off the rush under the pad of Skinner at the other end of the ice to lift Columbus back into the lead just 1:39 into the middle frame.

More than half the period later, the Oilers came close to responding with the man advantage when Jack Roslovic struck the crossbar, before Trent Frederic – playing on the top-unit power play on Monday in the absence of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – couldn't kick the rebound to his skate and put it away.

Before the intermission, another turnover below the Edmonton goal line turned over possession to Columbus, where the visitors worked it to Boone Jenner in the right circle before it went in off the skate of Brett Kulak defending inside the blue paint to double their advantage to 3-1 after 40 minutes.

The fans inside Rogers Place voiced their displeasure during the final minute of the period with the Blue Jackets hemming the Oilers in their own zone, which motivated the entire bench coming back out for the third period as a rallying cry to bring that little bit extra for the final frame.

"The group likes to put itself in a tough spot, and then just when you think it's a tough spot, we go a little bit further," McDavid said. "Then we decided it's time to go, so that's what the second period was. We hear it. We understand what happened on Saturday was not what we want to display to our fans, and we understand. We're all trying to win games, and we did that tonight."

"It's not a cheap ticket, and these fans love this team," Walman added. "We love the fans. We're trying to do as much as we can, but when we're not performing out there, I wouldn't be happy either if I were sitting in the stands too, so we're trying our hardest. We know it's a hard-working city, and that's what we needed to do. We need to get back to that to get out of this funk."

OILERS REFUSE TO QUIT

Never count the Oilers out.

Just like how they refused to give up after Saturday's heavy defeat to the Avalanche, the Oilers weren't about to go quietly in the third period on Monday – seeing McDavid dazzle with a pair of terrific individual goals before Walman got the bounce they'd been needing while shorthanded in the last minute.

"We stuck with it," McDavid said. "We put ourselves in a tough spot. We're good at coming from behind. We found a way – not the prettiest way to win a game – but a win nonetheless, and we move on."

The Oilers captain was going to do everything in his power to get the Oilers back in this one, and there are a lot of things that he can do individually to make that happen – like the spinning move he delivered on Denton Mateychuk less than a minute into the third period that the Columbus defenceman will be thinking about for a loooooooong time.

McDavid put the team on his back in the third period for one of those vintage performances of his that ranks up there with some of his best displays.

"Connor wasn't going to let us lose tonight. He was so focused on getting the job done," Knoblauch said. "I've seen Connor rise to the occasion and play some tremendous games, and I'm not going to say this was his best game that I've seen him play, but under the circumstances, it's got a rate up there just because he was so determined to get the job done.

"He had an incredible night. Two fabulous goals, but there was just so much determination to his game that it was like, 'it's not going to happen again tonight,' and he just willed the team to win."

McDavid came in on a two-on-two with Jack Roslovic and crossed up Mateychuk at the top of the right circle with a spinning move, causing him to fall backwards before No. 97 tossed a hard and quick backhand towards Greaves that beat the Blue Jackets netminder glove side to make it 3-2.

McDavid wasn't done with the individual efforts after the Blue Jackets restored their two-goal lead 4:19 into the final frame – this time showing his speed out wide off a neutral-zone regroup to get around three Columbus skaters before cutting towards the crease and tucking it far side on Greaves to make it a one-goal game with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation.

"There's nothing to be said about the goals, really," Roslovic said of McDavid. "Just a guy who took over for those couple of shifts. It's not even those shifts – it's the whole game. It's a body of work that happens through 60 minutes, not through just one miraculous play. It's effort throughout a whole game that leads to one extra inch of open ice, and that's when he becomes who he is."

The Oilers pulled Skinner for the extra attacker with over two minutes left, but a high-sticking penalty to Roslovic along the wall against Coyle looked to have derailed their comeback hopes until Walman pinched to keep the puck in during the final minute after McDavid and Draisaitl worked hard on the forecheck to direct the puck up the boards.

Walman intercepted it, cut towards the middle and tried to fire a backhand pass to the far side for either McDavid or Draisaitl, but instead watched as the puck caught a piece of the stick of Olivier to redirect it inadvertently into the top corner over Greaves to make it 4-4 with 58 seconds left.

"You see Wally score, and great pressure by Davo and Leo up the ice," Roslovic said. "Sometimes you get nice bounces to get off the losing streak, so it's nice to see a crazy one go in for you."

The late goal led to Walman becoming the eighth defenseman in franchise history to score a tying goal in the final minute of regulation after Mattias Ekholm (Dec. 21, 2024) was the last to achieve the feat, doing so with 18 seconds left in the third period.

On Monday, Walman and New Jersey's Simon Nemec both scored the game-tying goal within the final minute of regulation, marking only the seventh time in NHL history that multiple defencemen scored a game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation.

ROSIE COMPLETES THE COMEBACK

The Columbus kid, playing against his hometown team for the first time as an Oiler, finished off his new side's terrific rally in sudden death.

After Stuart Skinner made an exceptional save on a two-on-one against defenceman Zach Werenski, Roslovic was sprung for a breakaway by Walman and finished it off with a backhand under the right arm of Greaves to cap off Edmonton's comeback 5-4 win.

"We wanted to get out of that one at that point, but the ability to have a game where there are going to be times, a lot of times this year, where you have a gutsy effort like that," Roslovic said. "You work on comebacks, you work on holding leads, and they're things that you just keep on building to create muscle memory and scar tissue to know that you can do things."

Roslovic has now recorded four goals and five assists in his last eight games with the Oilers while playing in a top-six role with power-play time, and his chance to win the game in overtime on Monday was another huge point of trust for him from the coaching staff.

"It's hard to say for me," he said. "I'm just a part of this team right now who just came in, and I really feel like I'm a part of this team. But this team has had a lot of previous success. I know that doesn't really matter, but the way that the guys control the locker room is unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. Not that it's good to be on a bunch of teams, but like I said, it's a cool perspective to see and be in this locker room and have such good camaraderie with guys.

"It's really fun. Everyone feels like they're pulling the rope."