Maple Leafs 6, Oilers 4

The Oilers were down Cam Talbot and Adam Larsson due to upper body injuries. Add the fact that the Oilers were facing off against a red hot Maple Leafs team, and you could say that the club had their work cut out for them.

The Leafs took a two goal lead very quickly in this one. Auston Matthews scored a power play goal early in the first period, only for Dominic Moore to put the blue and white up by two with just six minutes gone in the first. Things looked to be getting out of hand quickly.

Mark Letestu would bring the Oilers to life with some fourth line pushback. Secondary scoring has been an issue for this team for most of the year, and it’s great to see the fourth line get on the scoreboard for the second time in two games. A 2-1 score looks a lot better going into the dressing room than a 2-0 score, yeah?

The lead would be short lived, as Matt Martin would make it 3-1 again just seconds after Letestu’s tally.

The second period would begin with the Oilers down two, but some more fourth line contribution was on the way. Zack Kassian would score his second goal in as many games. I believe that’s a streak.

That’s a nice assist from Jujhar Khaira. Hey, they might tie this one up. .

Connor McDavid would tie this game up on a beautiful tip on a Kris Russell pass. Hey, don’t look around too much, but it’s 3-3 against the Leafs.

It would last for 57 seconds. William Nylander scores less than a minute later to put the Leafs back up 4-3. The second period would end with the Leafs up by one.

Things got really out of hand when Kris Russell (!) tied the game on a slap shot from the point. It was 4-4 in the third period. Maybe if the Oilers could hold on to overtime, we’d get some 3 on 3 action in. Anything could happen at this point.

And it did.

I’m not going to say anything about this goal other than I wish it didn’t happen. I will also say that it put the Leafs up 5-4 and it put them there permanently. Nazem Kadri scored an empty netter as time expired to give the Leafs a 6-4 victory.

We’ll likely find out what’s going on with Adam Larsson’s “upper body injury” today. The Oilers can’t afford much time off from Cam Talbot, and they certainly can’t afford time off from one of their top defencemen.