Edmonton Oilers score early, ride momentum to huge win over Devils

You had the feeling if they could just catch a break, a deflection, a puck off somebody's skate, things might start to go in the right direction.

On Friday, the Edmonton Oilers finally got the breaks they needed and rode the momentum of two early goals to a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Place.

The Oilers had solid performances up and down the lineup.

For a team that has struggled mightily to find itself this season, the start was exactly what they wanted.

With the Oilers pressing early in the first period, winger Drake Caggiula, who had perhaps his strongest game of the season, drew an interference penalty at 4:49. On the ensuing power play, McDavid got the puck deep in the Devils zone, and Caggiula wisely worked his way into a small space just off the right goal post. He was parked there when McDavid's cross-crease pass reached him, and he banged in his first goal of the year.

"I knew his head was up, and I just wanted to find a way to sneak to the back side there and get lost in coverage," Caggiula said later. "Anytime you're on the ice with [McDavid], you just want to make sure you're ready to shoot, because he's going to put it on your tape."

The goal lifted the Oilers and Milan Lucic added more energy 40 second later when he dropped the gloves against tough guy Dalton Prout and the two exchanged a flurry of punches.

Asked about it later, Lucic said: "I've always played much better when I've played with emotion."

Ryan Strome put the Oilers up 2-0 less than three minutes later.

With pressure against the Devils zone, Caggiula pounced on a loose puck and tipped it back to Adam Larsson at the point.

Larsson blasted a shot that Strome deflected past goaltender Cory Schneider for his second of the season.

Those two quick goals injected a double espresso shot of confidence into an Oilers lineup that had totally misplaced its swagger over the past three weeks.

The Devils fought back with five minutes left in the period when winger Miles Wood took a pass at the red line and broke down the right wing. Oilers defenceman Matt Benning turned too late and was half-a-step behind. Benning kept his man to the outside and forced Wood into a backhand shot that Cam Talbot stopped. Defence partner Oscar Klefbom was back in time to help but forgot to check former Oiler Taylor Hall, who arrived to put in the rebound.

The Oilers sagged a little at that point.

Five minutes into the second, Jesper Brett fired a seeing-eye wrist shot from near the blue line that Talbot didn't see through a screen. The goal tied the game.

There have been too many nights this year when blown leads have killed the Oilers.

This time, the tie lasted just over a minute before Klefbom partly redeemed himself. He took a pass from Patrick Maroon and ripped a rolling puck past Schneider to put the Oilers on top again. Klefbom's first of the season was huge and swung the momentum again.

Hall, the former Oilers No. 1 draft pick traded before the start of last season, was the Devils most dangerous player. He had a goal, six shots on net, four hits and three takeaways.

The man he was traded for was a tower of strength on the Oilers blue line. Larsson had an assist, fired nine shots at the net, blocked six shots and racked up 13 hits.

"I thought I had a little extra jump in my game tonight," Larsson said after the game. "I wouldn't say I necessarily should have 13 hits in a game, but physicality is obviously part of my game."

Win secured with an empty-netter

The Oilers have been plagued this season by late-period goals. This time it was the Oilers who scored late, when Anton Slepyshev fed a pass across the Devils goalmouth and the puck banked in off Lucic's skate. That fourth goal gave the Oilers some breathing room.

"I think the reason we hadn't scored a lot of goal up until tonight was we weren't getting those second and third opportunities around the crease," Lucic said. "So it was nice to get rewarded being the right spot tonight."

Victimized on the Hall goal, Benning got his own chance for redemption. Halfway through the third period, the young defenceman took a pass at the Devils blue line. Half the crowd screamed at him to shoot. Instead, he showed great poise and confidence and hung onto the puck, waiting for a better option. Four heartbeats later, he fed a pin-point pass to McDavid just outside the goal crease. McDavid slipped the puck across to Draisaitl, who scored the insurance goal to make it 5-2.

The Devils later made it 5-3 on a goal-front deflection. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added his sixth of the season, an empty netter, with two minutes left to send the crowd home happy.

The Oilers are now 4-7-1 and have a chance to back up their win Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings. Game time is 2 p.m. MT.

@WriterMcConnell

rick.mcconnell@cbc.ca