The Edmonton Oilers make a quick pit stop at home Thursday night to host one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens.
The Oilers are in the midst of a stretch that sees them play seven of eight games on the road. Edmonton just completed a five-game road in which a three-game losing streak was sandwiched by wins, including a 3-2 overtime victory against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
Defenseman Jake Walman, who missed the first six games of the season with an undisclosed injury, returned to score the winner at 2:24 of overtime in a contest that featured several milestones for Oilers players.
Adam Henrique skated in his 1,000th NHL game, Stuart Skinner made 19 saves en route to his 100th NHL win, and Isaac Howard, the 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner at Michigan State as the top U.S. collegiate player, scored his first career goal in the victory.
Also, Connor McDavid notched his first goal of the season for Edmonton, which heads back on the road for games at Seattle on Saturday and at Vancouver on Sunday following the game against the Canadiens.
“It’s great momentum going back home,” Skinner said. “Obviously, we got Montreal, then a big back-to-back on the road again. So the first stretch here I think is a pretty tough schedule, and for us to be able to finish this road trip off with a win just really helps out because it could have been an ugly road trip. But we were able to manage two wins, which is huge.”
Walman added off beating the Senators, “That was big for us. Kind of what we wanted coming back. It was a happier plane ride that way, and we’re just looking at carrying that momentum back home.”
Montreal will be playing the second game of a road back-to-back that began with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. Mike Matheson drilled a Ivan Demidov crossing pass inside the left post for the winner one minute into OT.
“I saw Mike on the backdoor and just passed it through,” Demidov said matter-of-factly.
“It was such a great play by ‘Demi,’ I just had to finish it,” Matheson said.
The victory was the sixth in the past seven games for the Canadiens, who are tied with the New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanches and Vegas Golden Knights for the most points in the NHL (12).
Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 36 of 37 shots to improve to a perfect 4-0-0 with a 1.47 goals-against and a .950 save percentage.
“I’m glad (Matheson) ended it because we’ve got to go to Edmonton,” Dobes said with a smile. “I saw most of the pucks, and our guys also blocked some pretty crucial shots from them in the third (period). So I think that it was a team effort.”
Montreal improved to 3-0 in overtime this season.
“I feel like we have players that can make big plays,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “It’s always great when you’re able to get the win in overtime, and we feel very confident.”
–Field Level Media
