Quinn Hutson scored his first NHL goal with 5:22 left in the second period, and it stood as the game-winner as the visiting Edmonton Oilers beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Thursday night.
Edmonton tallied a goal in each period on the way to its sixth win in eight games (6-1-1). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid each finished with a goal and an assist.
Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first, while McDavid added a shorthanded tally in the third.
McDavid has 10 goals and 12 assists during an eight-game point streak.
Edmonton’s Tristan Jarry stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced, but left with an apparent lower-body injury after saving a Morgan Geekie slap shot with 4:52 left in the second. Calvin Pickard made 12 saves on as many shots in relief.
Pavel Zacha scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves for Boston, which is 5-2-0 in its last seven games.
After Jarry saved Sean Kuraly’s shorthanded break at the opposite end of the rink, Edmonton’s power play linked for the opening goal at 13:38. Starting the play by speeding down the wing and dropping a pass off for Leon Draisaitl, McDavid threaded a puck from behind the goal line to Nugent-Hopkins who banged in a goal at the back post.
Zacha then responded during the hosts’ first man advantage, receiving a saucer pass from Elias Lindholm as he cut down the slot and lifting a glove-side backhander over Jarry with 3:33 left before intermission.
Hutson put Edmonton back in front at 14:38 of the second. The Boston University product slotted the rebound of former Bruin Max Jones’ shot past an outstretched Swayman.
Pickard entered the net to make three huge stops before the end of the middle frame, including one on a Mikey Eyssimont wrist shot from the left circle and another on Hampus Lindholm’s drive from the point.
Shortly after Pickard gloved David Pastrnak’s chance over the crossbar during an early Boston power play in the third, a moment of McDavid brilliance allowed the Oilers to take a two-goal lead at 1:41. Nugent-Hopkins sprung the Edmonton captain down the middle for his first shorthanded goal of the season on a backhand breakaway finish.
Swayman stopped three Zach Hyman shots in less than three minutes following the halfway mark of the third, but Boston was unable to draw closer than 3-1 as a late power play was killed off.
