The Associated Press
BOSTO –The Edmonton Oilers headed home trying to build on a big victory.
Ryan Strome broke a tie early in the third period, and Cam Talbot made 23 saves, in the Oilers’ 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins last night.
“I don’t know why we make life so hard on ourselves,” Strome said.
“The challenge is consistency and hopefully we can find that here.”
Edmonton has the second-worst record in the Western Conference, and has won consecutive games only once this season.
“We finished the trip off the way we wanted to,” said Oilers’ head coach Todd McLellan.
“We have to break the spell now and put two together.”
Strome scored 2:07 into the third when he took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and wristed a shot from point-blank range over goalie Tuukka Rask’s shoulder.
Draisaitl added an empty-netter with 51 seconds left.
The Oilers won for just the second time in six games but beat Boston for the sixth-straight time after dropping the previous 13.
“You hope that guys can gain some confidence,” said Oilers’ forward Milan Lucic.
Patrick Maroon and Adam Larsson also scored for the Oilers.
David Pastrnak and David Krejci replied for Boston.
Rask stopped 32 shots in his first appearance in five games after backup Anton Khudobin had led the Bruins to four-straight victories.
“He [Rask] played well but we only scored two goals,” Pastrnak noted.
“It’s hard to score goals when we don’t shoot enough and we just didn’t do all the things we have done during our four wins.”
Krejci converted a feed from Riley Nash to tie it at 2-2 with 4:29 left in the second period.
Maroon and Larsson scored less than five minutes apart midway through the second period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.
Pastrnak had a power-play goal at 14:03 of the first to snap Boston’s 0-for-17 drought with the man advantage.
“We lacked energy and I couldn’t kick-start us,” admitted Bruins’ head coach Bruce Cassidy.
“We got the early power-play goal, but couldn’t extend the lead and that’s disappointing playing at home.”
Rask made 32 saves but now has suffered four-straight losses.
Elsewhere in the NHL, the N.Y. Rangers beat Vancouver 4-3 (SO) and Carolina edged Nashville 4-3 (SO).
