GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Blues 0

EDMONTON, AB – Here's to you, Nuge.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the game-winning goal in his 1,000th NHL game, while Connor Ingram made 27 saves for the shutout on Sunday night as the Edmonton Oilers earned their second clean sheet in as many games with a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Place.

After scoring six times in the second period of a 6-0 win over the Canucks on Saturday, the Oilers potted three goals in the opening 20 minutes on Sunday that started with Nugent-Hopkins' 12th goal of the season on the power play that came 5:55 into the first period, ultimately winding up as the game-winner.

Connor Ingram followed up Tristan Jarry's 31-save performance yesterday with a 27-save shutout of his own tonight to pick up his first shutout since Mar. 8, 2024 with the Arizona Coyotes, improving to 5-3-1 this season as a member of the Oilers, who've won back-to-back games via the clean sheet.

The Oilers have outscored 11 unanswered goals dating back to the start of Saturday's second period against the Canucks, marking the seventh time since the 2000-01 season they've recorded at least 10 unanswered goals, and the first time in franchise history with back-to-back shutouts by a five-goal margin.

"I think it went as well as a night like tonight can go," Ingram said. "It's a big day for Nuge. It's a big day for the organization, and everything seems to be clicking. Playing your 1,000th game and you score the game-winner, it doesn't get much better than that. It's something I'll talk about for a long time, and it was just an honour to be a part of it."

Zach Hyman recorded two goals and an assist, while Vasily Podkolzin also recorded a multi-point night with a goal and an assist alongside Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm, who each contributed two helpers.

Andrew Mangiapane also found the scoresheet with his sixth goal of the campaign, and Curtis Lazar has points in consecutive games thanks to an assist.

The Oilers will be back in action on home ice this Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils, continuing their eight-game homestand at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

Just follow the Nuuuuge's lead.

This night was all about celebrating the heart & soul of the Oilers' franchise for the past 15 seasons, who ahead of playing in his 1,000th NHL game on Sunday night against the Blues – all with the Oilers – was treated to plenty of special moments by his friends, family, teammates and organization.

"It's pretty special to be a part of a group that cares about milestones and important days," Hyman said. "This is a special day, and you try to make it as special as possible because Nuge means so much to all of us. He's the ultimate teammate, ultimate friend, and you want to make this day special for him, and one that he'll never forget because he's earned it."

"It's not easy playing a thousand games. First Oiler to ever play 1,000 consecutive is pretty remarkable given the history of this organization, the amount of unbelievable Hall of Fame players that have come through, and I think you just see how much the fans love him."

"In my mind, he might be the most beloved Oiler of all time. It's pretty special to commit to this city for pretty much your entire career. I think he's here for life, and you can ask him that, but it seems like it. A commitment to this city, and you can see the commitment back. They just truly love him, and what's not to love?"

Nugent-Hopkins was welcomed to Rogers Place by his teammates wearing matching 'NUGE' jockey uniforms, paying homage of his ties to horse-racing and his accomplished horse 'Infinite Patience' that's since retired from competition.

"Those were cool," Nugent-Hopkins said. "The way that Harry got his hands on those was pretty creative... I didn't know what to expect, to be honest. I thought it was just gonna be a white T-shirt with some old picture of me on it or something, so pretty creative. Pretty cool. I'll definitely want to take one of those home, and I'm sure there was a group chat kind of discussing which route to go, and I thought it was very well done."

In warm-ups, they all adorned jerseys with his No. 93, the Nugent-Hopkins name bar, along with the 'A' on the front as a long-time assistant captain.

Everyone on the ice mimicked his unique warm-up tendencies, which included using baby powder on their sticks at the bench and stretching above the circles, before it was time for the pre-game ceremony and presentation of the silver stick, with Nuge being joined by his family at centre ice.

"Obviously, special and memorable," Nugent-Hopkins said. "What the guys put together and the way they made this night a special night for myself, my family, and friends was incredible, and something that I'll never forget. The fans out there are always electric, and that stuff doesn't go unnoticed. So just a lot of appreciation tonight."

When the puck finally dropped, it was only fitting for Nugent-Hopkins to kick off the scoring in his own celebration.

After the puck was poked to Evan Bouchard by Jake Walman to set up a two-on-one behind the Blues' defence, Nugent-Hopkins took a pass from Bouchard on the left side and buried a blocker-side snipe on Jordan Binnington on the power play to open the scoring 5:55 into the first period.

"Classic Nuge," Hyman said. "Just a great wrister. A quick snapshot that beat him clean, and pretty special when you're able to score. I think I saw a stat that he's like the 10th player to score in his first and 1,000th game, which is pretty cool. Pretty amazing."

The goal ended the Burbaby product's 11-game goalless drought despite being productive over that stretch with eight assists, including two in his hometown on Saturday in a 6-0 win over the Canucks. It marked Nugent-Hopkins' 12th goal and 40th point of the season, giving the Oilers an early 1-0 lead.

"I don't even know what to say about that," he said. "I haven't scored in a couple of weeks, too, and obviously it's fun to do that on a night like tonight. It's hard to put into words right now, but it was a lot of fun. I thought the guys played great, and Ingram played outstanding. I thought we just kept pushing and pushing and controlled the game for the most part."

Bouchard collected his 220th career assist on Nugent-Hopkins’ opening goal and now has 48 points (11G, 37A) since October 21st, which is tied with Zach Werensky for the most points by a defenceman over that span.

Just under six minutes later, the Oilers' fourth line had the Blues on their heels in their own zone before Curtis Lazar decided to take a shot from inside the right circle that produced a juicy rebound for Andrew Mangiapane to put away from the slot and make it 2-0 for the hosts.

After coming back into the lineup for the absent Leon Draisaitl on Saturday, Mangiapane picked up his sixth goal of the season and first tally in eight appearances since finding the scoresheet back on Dec. 20 against the Minnesota Wild.

Lazar now has two assists in as many games and is playing some of his best hockey of the season as the catalyst on that fourth line for Edmonton.

Speaking of playing his best hockey, you can include Zachary Martin Hyman in that conversation after the winger scored his 16th goal of the season and second PPG in as many games with 1:17 left in the opening period, lifting Edmonton's lead to 3-0 heading into the intermission.

Following a goalmouth chance for Vasily Podkolzin, the puck was poked back up to the blueline for Mattias Ekholm to let go of a low slap shot that was deflected by Hyman over the left pad of Binnington, marking his 16th goal in his last 20 games dating back to Dec. 11.

"Finding his game coming back from an injury took a little bit of time," Knoblauch said. "No training camp and joining our team when we probably weren't playing at our best, but we've been playing better. A lot of that had to do with him coming back into our lineup, among other things, so he just has a nose for the net. He finds ways to score goals, and that's usually just most of his goals. He scored one from distance tonight, but most of it's just being able to get a stick available. It's quite a remarkable skill that he pulls off."

Podkolzin was eventually credited with the second assist, giving him points in back-to-back games after scoring against his former Canucks team on Saturday night with the last of Edmonton's six goals in the second period.

With three more goals in the first period tonight, the Oilers have now scored nine goals in just over four periods of hockey after being shut out for the previous 109:59 prior to Saturday night's offensive explosion in Vancouver.

Late in the period, however, winger Kasperi Kapanen took a tumble into the boards and was slow to get up, eventually being helped off the ice and leaving the game with a lower-body injury that's going to sideline the Finnish forward for a little while, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game.

Despite that, Kapanen was in good spirits in the dressing room after and shouldn't be out of the lineup for as long as his last 36-game absence.

"We don't know how long it is," Knoblauch said. "It's certainly not as bad as when he hurt before, and I'm not sure if it's the same or whatever, but he seems like he's in good spirits. The medical staff, from what I've heard, haven't done full testing, but I think he'll be returning not immediately, and it's not going to be a long-term thing."

SECOND PERIOD

After being given plenty of run support in the opening 20 minutes, it was Connor Ingram's time to shine with 12 saves in the middle frame, including a big one in the dying seconds of the period on Justin Faulk that kept the Oilers on track to blank their opponents for the second straight evening.

Ingram did the heavy lifting during the middle frame for Edmonton, starting with two terrific saves in the first two minutes on Jimmy Snuggerud and Alexei Torpchenko after the Blues came back at the Oilers following the intermission with the hopes of building off an early goal in the frame.

The Oilers came close to increasing their lead when former Oilers forward Nick Bjugstad laid down in the crease on the puck to get a whistle before the puck crossed the line, but a review determined that the play had already been blown down, so the lead remained 3-0 for the Oilers.

Binnington denied Podkolzin in the crease after McDavid's set-up from below the goal line, but there was more to come from that top-line duo later in the period after they were assembled together in a unit with Hyman for Saturday's victory over Vancouver following the shuffle brought on by Draisaitl's absence.

The top line got on the scoresheet again at 10:52 of the period when Hyman ripped home his second of the game off the far post after McDavid was fed by Ekholm through the neutral zone to start the fast attack that led to the winger's league-leading 17th goal since Dec. 11 (20 games) and 19th tally this season.

Hyman now has seven goals and eight points over his last seven games, while McDavid picked up his first of two helpers on Sunday. Ekholm picked up his second assist of the night and is eight assists away from reaching 300 in his career.

"Going to good spots and playing with a pretty good player," Hyman said of his recent goalscoring success. "I think goalscoring is very much a confidence thing. It's a feel thing. I've scored a lot of goals with this team, and I think it starts with Connor. He's such a dynamic player. Just try to get open, try to get him the puck in space, and let him do his thing and then try to complement and find ways to get into scoring positions. He's pretty good at finding me."

The Oilers wouldn't have escaped to the intermission with their 4-0 lead if it weren't for Ingram, who was alert off an offensive-zone faceoff for the Blues with nine seconds left in the period in standing up a dangerous effort from Faulk before time expired on the middle frame.

After it was Tristan Jarry shutting out the Canucks with 31 saves on Saturday, Ingram was tracking towards another clean sheet with 19 saves through 40 minutes on Sunday after being on the wrong end of a 1-0 shutout defeat to the Islanders in his last start back on Thursday.

"It feels good right now," Ingram said about his game. "My life's just hockey. There are a couple of days a week when I don't even make it outside. I just walk through the pedway over here, and I just sleep and play hockey right now, so it's an easy life."

THIRD PERIOD

Make it back-to-back shutouts for the Oilers to cap off what was a special night for their longest-tenured player.

The Oilers capped off their scoring 1:19 into the third period, with Vasily Podkolzin once again being the recipient of another terrific pass from McDavid and scoring this time to make it 5-0 and continue his recent stretch of productive play with a multi-point game on Sunday, thanks to his 12th goal of the season.

McDavid pushed the puck past Blues defenceman Tyler Tucker in the neutral zone before throwing a spin-o-rama pass to Podkolzin at the back post that he put over Binnington's right pad, giving the Russian his third multi-point game of the season and three goals and four assists over his last eight games.

It was another confident showing from the Oilers during the last frame to secure the shutout, shutting down the Blues defensively.

"It kind of shows the strides that we've started to take defensively," Nugent-Hopkins said. "It starts from the goaltender out, and I think our D are playing outstanding, just the way that they're holding lines and not allowing other teams to get into our zone easy at all. As a forward, we have to come back to make that more comfortable for them, but there are still steps that we want to take here to get to another level. I think as of late, it's a great sign.

After time expired on a 27-save shutout for Ingram, marking Edmonton's second straight clean sheet, there was still time for one final ovation for Nuge.

After the Oilers saluted their own fans at centre ice, the players stayed and let Nugent-Hopkins take an extra lap of his own amidst ovations from the Rogers Place faithful, who've had the pleasure of getting to cheer for him for 1,000 straight games and many more to come.