Streaking

As good as the final outcome was this was not a game for the Oilers to hang their hats on. On the heels of a 5-0 spanking by the Calgary Flames the night before the Carolina Hurricanes were in rough shape. The Hurricanes came into tonight's contest as the only team in the NHL without a win. This should've been a game the Oilers shone in but it took almost 2 1/2 periods for them to really get going. For the first 50 minutes of the game the two teams seemed evenly matched and if it wasn't for some penalties in favour of the Oilers and couple non-calls against them this could've been a different game.

Highlights

First Period

• 19:43 - RNH tries to hold the zone but loses it and gives CAR a 4 on 2 rush. Jay McClements hits the post
• 19:36 - Hall picks up the loose puck and takes a low shot that Anton Khudobin stops
• 15:00 - Oilers get their 2nd shot ( shots are 7 - 2 CAR)
• 12:03 - Oiler PP Belmore Zumin holding PP
• 11:20 - Benoit Pouliot gets in front of a Justin Schultz shot but Khudobin stops it
• 5:37 - Mark Arcobello gets a nice pass over to Pouliot who gets a really good chance from the slot
• 3:54 - Oilers PP - Interference
• 3:28 - Nikita Nikitin to Teddy Purcell for a good shot but no traffic in front of the net so Khudobin made a pretty routine stop
• 2:30 - Pouliot makes a pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who quickly passed it back Pouliot who then passes it back to Nugent-Hopkins. Nugent-Hopkins finally tries to take the shot but it's blocked. This all happened within a couple of feet of each other. (it was a very strange sequence)

Second Period

• 17:39 - Schultz pulls Brad Malone down Oilers PK
• 14:10 - Jiri Tlusty hits the post from a sharp angle but it almost fools Ben Scrivens
• 13:26 - Jordan Eberle gets a great chance in close but puts his backhand off of the post
• 11:32 - Zach Boychuk takes a shot from the circle that gets stopped even though Chris Terry plows down Scrivens. No call on the play.
• 10:17 - GOAL Hall starts this off with a good forecheck on Jay Harrison as he tries to clear the puck. The clearing attempt knocks Hall's stick out of his hand but the puck goes straight to Eberle. Eberle makes a pass at the blue line to Hall. Eberle moves in behind the defender and Hall makes a perfect pass to Ebs with a wide open net.
• 9:41 - Hall puts a shot on net. Nugent-Hopkins can't get the rebound.
• 4:59 - Tlusty gets a great chance and Scrivens kicks the puck out. It goes to Alexander Semin with an open net but Scrivens makes the stop.
• 4:52 - GOAL Justin Faulk takes a shot from the point that gets tipped by Riley Nash and makes its way to the back of the net
• 3:15 - GOAL Nikitin takes a shot from the side boards that Khubodin has a tough time handling. Jesse Joensuu is there to bury the rebound.
• 2:04 - GOAL Martin Marincin is draped all over Jeff Skinner with the puck. The ref signals a penalty but Skinner takes the shot from up high and beats Scrivens high glove side.

Third Period

• 17:02 - Elias Lindholm takes a holding penalty on Nugent-Hopkins
• 16:55 - Purcell gets a great pass over to Yak but shoots wide on the one timer
• 15:34 - GOAL Pouliout breaks his stick on Brett Bellmore but no penalty is called. Eberle retrieves the puck at the face off dot and scores glove side.
• 15:34 - Oilers PP (Bench minor to Carolina for complaining about the missed call)
• 12:51 - The puck bounced weirdly for Scrivens couldn't control it. As it was bouncing towards the empty net Jeff Petry swiped it away.
• 12:10 - GOAL Scrivens plays the puck behind the net but misreads the play, McClement gets the loose puck behind the net and tries the wrap around but can't control it. The puck goes to the point and Harrison buries it from the point.
• 9:54 - Khubodin makes a pass behind the net but Hendricks forces the defender to cough it up to Joensuu who has a wide open net. But shoots it wide.
• 8:58 - Terry gets sprung at centre ice but Fayne makes a phenomenal defenensive play to break it up.
• 7:08 - GOAL David Perron gets covered by 3 Hurricanes on the half boards leaving Leon Draisaitl wide open in the slot. Draisaitl takes the initial shot which is stopped but picks up his own rebound to score his first NHL goal
• 6:33 - Hall streaks down the left side. Gets a pass over to Eberle but the puck bounces over his stick.
• 5:25 - Semin retrieves the puck from a scrum and gets a great shot but Scrivens makes the glove save.
• 4:11 - GOAL Schultz blasts a shot from the point that is stopped but Nugent-Hopkins buries the rebound.
• 2:23 - Carolina pulls their goalie.
• 1:27 - GOAL Matt Hendricks scores on the empty net.

Thoughts

• The Oilers top line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle dominated in the offensive zone
• Its nice to have a fourth line that doesn't just leak chances against
• It was nice to see Draisaitl get his first NHL goal

This wasn't the prettiest win the Oilers have put together but it is nice to finally see them winning games they should be winning.