For a team that played the night before, the Oilers played a pretty decent road game. They kept pace with the Devils for most of the night but in the end still came up short in overtime.
Highlights
Game Break Down
First Goal Against
The deja vu pairing of Andrew Ference and Mark Fraser. Also why the hell is the fourth line out there against Jaromir Jagr's top line? Watch in wonder as Fraser, who has his check covered skates towards the puck carrier and completely loses his check leave Andrei Loktionov wide open for an easy goal. BRING THE GROWL!
First Goal For
It has been a while since we've seen the Oilers counter a goal against with the top line and what do you know it resulted in a goal. What a great pass by Nail Yakupov to Taylor Hall to tie the game.
The Game Winner
For some reason every Oilers player on the ice decided to skate towards the left side boards to help Martin Marincin dig out the puck. Not a single player covered the slot nor the point allowing Jon Merrill the opportunity to get the puck and shoot it through Ilya Bryzgalov.
There is definitely one side note that has to be made. Adam Henrique has a pretty good hold on Marincin's stick but because it was overtime the referees didn't want to "decide" the game on a penalty. The problem with this logic is that by not calling a penalty the referees decided the game on the goal that was essentially created by the infraction.
The Game Review
Game Rating: 6 out of 10
For the second of a back to back game on the road the Oilers played it decently. For the first period and a half they pushed the Devils and didn't allow them to play their defensive style of game. There was a lot of back and forth and although the Devils had the majority of shot attempts the Oilers still had opportunities. By the third period you could tell the Oilers were pretty much spent. They got trapped in their zone a few times and the push back just wasn't there.
Momentum Killer
I could single out the defence again tonight but in reality the true momentum killer for the Oilers was fatigue. As I mentioned above by the end of the game they just weren't there. The fact that New Jersey hadn't played since Monday really wore on the Oilers.
Momentum Driver
Ilya Bryzgalov. As has been the case over the past 7 games or so the best player on the team was the goaltender. Sure Bryzgalov didn't stop 59 shots but at least he gave the Oilers a chance to win.
Up Next
The Minnesota Wild but that isn't going to happen for nearly 3 weeks so enjoy the Olympic break. Go Canada Go!