EDMONTON, Alberta: The Edmonton Oilers certainly didn’t take the easy route to their first win of the season.
Jordan Eberle and David Perron scored in the shootout for the Oilers, who erased a three-goal deficit in the third period against goalie Martin Brodeur and beat the New Jersey Devils 5-4 yesterday.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Andrew Ference, Perron, and Taylor Hall all scored their first of the season in a 7:47 span to make it 4-3. But despite getting a power play with 2:51 left in regulation, the Oilers (1-2) were forced to go to overtime.
Jason LaBarbera made 21 saves through the extra session and stopped both Devils attempts in the shootout. Brodeur made 23 saves, but was 0 for 2 in the tiebreaker.
“We dominated for most of the game and then took a tough penalty, and from there it got a bit chaotic. It was a tough one,” Brodeur said.
“Things like what happened don’t happen too often.
“We are a veteran team and we should be able to play better under that kind of pressure. They are a good, young team, but we had them exactly where we wanted them.”
The victory helped the Oilers avoid their worst start since 1995 when they were 0-4.
“It’s tough to explain, but I’m glad we bounced back the way we did,” Perron said.
“To lose the first three would have been a pretty tough way to start the year. I know everyone was pretty eager to get that first win, and now we can look forward to new things and keep moving.”
While the Devils were still a man down late, New Jersey pulled Brodeur for an extra skater, and Patrik Elias netted the tying short-handed goal with 54 seconds remaining.
Ference, the Oilers’ 14th captain, said his team just needed to get over early-season jitters.
Looking for a third-period spark, Vancouver Canucks head coach John Tortorella shuffled his forwards and split twin forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin onto different lines.
The move paid off when the Canucks scored three goals in the period and Mike Santorelli provided the overtime winner in a 5-4 victory over the Flames
Santorelli deflected a pass from Kevin Bieksa to score at 3:17 in overtime.Agencies
