The Associated Press
BOSTON—The Edmonton Oilers weren’t trying to hide it.
They knew they were lucky to get out of town with a victory.
Andrej Sekera scored 41 seconds into overtime, and Cam Talbot stopped 47 shots, to lift the Oilers to a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins last night.
It was Edmonton’s sixth-straight win.
“We’re not naive enough to think we were the better team,” said Oilers’ coach Todd McLellan.
“We’ll put it in the bank and get out of here as quick as we can.”
Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored first-period goals for Edmonton.
The victory halted an eight-game losing streak in Boston for the Oilers, who were fresh off a 5-0 homestand—their best since 1987.
“We’ve won games this year that we definitely didn’t deserve to win and this is one of those ones we probably should have won,” said Bruins’ forward Brad Marchand, who tied the score with just under five minutes left in regulation time.
The Oilers won the overtime face-off, rushed into the Boston zone, and controlled the puck the entire time before Sekera won it with a wrister from the slot after back-up goalie Jonas Gustavsson stopped one shot.
“For some reason, when you’re in the offensive zone you never get tired,” Sekera said.
“You get tired when you lose the puck and you have to go back to backcheck.
“Especially 3-on-3, it’s fun when you have the puck,” he added.
“It’s not so much fun when you don’t have the puck.”
Matt Beleskey also scored for Boston, which has earned at least one point in each of its last 16 games against the Oilers (13-0-3).
“We had to fight back but their goaltender stood tall and we just kept going after them, and found a way to get ourselves back into the game and get ourselves at least a point,” noted Bruins’ coach Claude Julien.
Gustavsson made 21 saves.
Top goalie Tuukka Rask had the night off in the midst of a hot stretch—posting a 6-0-2 mark in his last eight starts.
The Oilers entered the game with a 4-10-1 road record.
“We’re a smart group of players,” McLellan said.
“We know we stole one here tonight—our goaltender played a tremendous game for us.”
Elsewhere in the NHL, Ottawa beat L.A. 5-3, Washington downed Pittsburgh 4-1, Tampa Bay edged Columbus 2-1, and Buffalo nipped Detroit 2-1.
