ST. LOUIS — Connor Brown scored at 2:33 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers recovered for a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
Brown scored his first career overtime goal on a one-timer off a pass from Connor McDavid, who skated into the slot and dished to his left.
“He was good,” Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl said of Brown. “’Brownie’ always plays good for us. He’s a great player. It’s nice for guys like that to get rewarded in big moments.”
EDM@STL: Brown finishes McDavid’s feed for the OT winner
Draisaitl tied it 2-2 at 17:46 of the third period with goalie Stuart Skinner on the bench for an extra skater on a cross-ice pass from McDavid to the right circle for a one-timer for his NHL-leading 37th goal.
“I’ve had a little bit of success over there,” Draisaitl said. “We’ve got some great passers on our units. They seem to know when to slide it over. Obviously fantastic pass by [McDavid].”
McDavid, who will be an assistant captain for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, had a goal and two assists, Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers (33-16-4), who ended a two-game skid (0-1-1). Skinner made 20 saves.
“I thought in the first period we played really well,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Had a lot of scoring chances. I think their goaltender kept them in it. Then they played better as the game went on. In the third period, ‘Stu’ made some great saves to keep us into it. … It was good that we stuck with it. We’ve seen that a lot this year.”
Jordan Kyrou and Colton Parayko, who will represent Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, scored in the third period to rally St. Louis (24-25-5), which is 1-4-1 in its past six games. Jordan Binnington, who will also play for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, made 35 saves.
“We got it going in the second period there a bit, had some chances,” St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn said. “I think we were more direct and harder to play against in the third. At the end of the day, we had some chances to make it 3-1 and didn’t capitalize unfortunately and gave some good players time and space. They made it happen for them.”
EDM@STL: Draisaitl fires home one-timer to knot the game at 2
Binnington made 13 saves in the first period when the Blues were outshot 13-3.
McDavid’s power-play goal at 5:50 of the second period gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead when the Edmonton captain took a puck off the left boards from Bouchard, skated into the left circle and snapped a shot into the top right corner.
Kyrou tied it 1-1 at 5:12 of the third period, after Dylan Holloway‘s initial shot was saved, Schenn pushed the rebound through the crease and Kyrou was on the right post for the backhand tap-in.
Parayko gave the Blues a 2-1 lead at 8:58 on a one-timer from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Robert Thomas.
EDM@STL: Parayko scores goal against Stuart Skinner
The Blues had opportunities to extend the lead including Thomas missing a wide open net moments after Parayko’s goal and Alexandre Texier putting a backhand off the post in tight.
“It was [disappointing],” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Our third period was our best period of the game. I thought the first period was not good enough. Second period we got better, thought we started to develop a lot of scoring chances and then in the third period, we scored on the power play, and we had opportunities to push it to 3-1 a couple times, and we’ve got to be able to close out games.”
NOTES: McDavid has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in his past eight games. He had his 133rd career three-point game, third among active players behind Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (184) and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (136). … Draisaitl has five points (three goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak, and 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in his past 13 games. … Blues defenseman Nick Leddy played 15:27, his first game after missing the previous 49 with a lower-body injury.
