EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Alexis Lafreniere scored in the sixth round of a shootout and also connected in regulation to help the New York Rangers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 on Friday night for their seventh straight victory.
Chris Kreider scored twice, Mika Zibanejad added a goal and Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves as the Rangers dug out of a 4-1 hole. They are 14-2-2 in their last 18 and 33-14-8 overall.
“I like the way we played,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We were down 4-1 and I thought the game was far from over, we still have 40 minutes. It’s the NHL, it’s not like the game was going to be over and we battled hard and found a way.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Tyson Barrie, Derek Ryan and Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton, and Jack Campbell stopped 34 shots. The Oilers have lost three straight to fall to 30-19-7. They have lost seven straight games that have gone to extra time.
“It was disappointing that we didn’t find the second point tonight,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft. said.
The Oilers got off to a terrific start, taking a 3-0 lead 12:30 into the first period.
On the power play, Zach Hyman sent a shot off the post and Nugent-Hopkins deposited his 27th of the season off a mad scramble in front at 7:52.
With an assist on the play, Connor McDavid picked up his 100th point of the season in his 56th game. It’s the sixth time in his career that he has hit triple digits.
At the 12:11 mark, a big rebound came out to Barrie, who jumped into the play to score his eighth of the season. Nineteen seconds later, Ryan beat Shesterkin with a glove-side snipe for his 10th.
New York got one back just over a minute after on the power play as a crisp four-way passing play culminated in Kreider tapping one in past Campbell from the doorstep to extend his point streaks to seven games.
Draisailt made it 4-1 when he rifled home his 32nd of the season on a feed from McDavid.
The Rangers trimmed the deficit with a short-handed goal 6:26 into the second period when a Kreider pass attempt hit a skate and came back to him, and he scored his second of the game.
New York kept coming to start the third. Lafreniere snapped his ninth 1:36 into the frame after the puck was chipped in front to him.
The Rangers tied it on a two-man advantage with 6:50 remaining in the third as Zibanejad blasted his 30th from the slot.
“If you look at that first period, you might say that’s a horrendous first period going down 4-1,” Zibanejad said. “But I thought we did some good things and the way we created some chances was good, they were things that we’ve been talking about all year.
“We had to make sure we trust our way of playing, just being patient, there is 40 minutes left at that point and little by little getting back into the game and that’s what we did.”
UP NEXT
Rangers: At Calgary on Saturday.
Oilers: At Colorado on Sunday.
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