Oilers 6, Hurricanes 3

After a scoreless first period where the Carolina Hurricanes had 15 shots on goal, the Edmonton Oilers exploded for four goals in the third period and defeated the winless Canes, 6-3 at Rexall Place on Friday night.

Jeff Skinner, Riley Nash, and Jay Harrison tallied the goals for the Hurricanes, who are now 0-5-2 for the season.

Both teams played a pretty even game until half way through the second period when the Oilers' Jordan Eberle got a perfect pass from Taylor Hall on a 2-on-1 break to make it 1-0.  Hall created a turnover on the play when he tipped a Harrison pass to create the odd man rush.

The Canes tied it up though just a bit later when Nash tipped in a Justin Faulk shot from the point.

The home team took the lead once again a minute and change later when Anton Khudobin failed to corral a rebound and Jesse Joensuu shoved the loose puck in the net to make it, 2-1.

The Canes were more resilient in this game though and Skinner would tie things up, 2-2 with 2:02 left in the second with a nice move and shot to the front of the net.

The Oilers would get a couple of breaks in the third period, first, when it appeared that Brett Bellemore was slashed as the puck was taken from him.  Eberle broke in all alone to beat Khudobin in close.  The Canes bench argued the no-call loudly and were promptly called for unsportsmanlike conduct.

After they killed that penalty, Carolina would tie the game one more time when Harrison fired in a blast from the blueline.  Jay McClement created the play by stealing the puck from goalie Ben Scrivens from behind the net.

The Oilers would take the lead for good when Tim Gleason had his stick taken from him and lost his man as he went to the bench for another.  Rookie, Leon Draisaitl scored his first career goal when he found himself all alone in front of the Carolina net.  Khudobin made the initial save by using his glove to knock down the point blank shot, but the rookie tapped in the rebound to make it 4-3, and that was the game-winner.

Edmonton scored twice more, one on an empty-netter to close out the scoring.

All in all, it was a better effort by Carolina, but it was not good enough and they still had some loose play in their own end.  Next up will be the Canucks in Vancouver on Tuesday night.

Game Notes:

• Taylor Hall seemed to be everywhere in this game but just finished with one assist for his efforts.  Jordan Eberle had two goals, (his first of the season), and one assist for three points.
• The coaching staff split up Faulk and Sekera in this game and for what it's worth Sekera had a +2 while Faulk was -2.
• After having a lowly 16 shots on goal the night before, the Canes made an effort to put more rubber on the net tonight and had 15 shots in the first period alone.  They finished outshooting the Oilers 30-29 for the game.  Elias Lindholm led the way with four.
• Brett Bellemore had a team best six hits.
• Event Summary stat sheet