EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Ben Scrivens covered up for his teammates’ late defensive lapses to help the Edmonton Oilers hand the Washington Capitals their first regulation loss of the season.
Scrivens stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period and finished with 32 saves in Edmonton’s 3-2 victory Wednesday night.
“I will say that’s not how we want to play in the third period,” Oilers coach Dallas Eakins. “We started backing up and we don’t want to do that as a group. We’ll get better at that for sure. Even though we ended up in our zone a lot, we were able to cover off that bad area — that red zone. When Ben needed to, he was there for us. He was excellent.”
Justin Schultz, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nikita Nikitin scored to help the Oilers win their second straight game after opening the season 0-4-1. Teddy Purcell added two assists.
Schultz pointed to Scrivens as the game-saver.
“When he plays like that, he always gives us a chance,” Schultz said. “It wasn’t our best effort for us out there, but we found a way to win.”
John Carlson and Mike Green scored for Washington. The Capitals dropped to 3-1-2.
“For the last two periods we played great,” Washington forward Marcus Johansson said. “We had enough chances to score, we just didn’t bury them. It is the small details that can cost you a game and tonight it did. It was a tough one to lose, but that’s hockey sometimes. We played well, we just didn’t execute and it cost us too much.”
There was a moment of silence before the game in recognition of the shootings in Ottawa, Ontario, earlier in the day, as well as the attack in Quebec this week.
Green gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead early in the second period, taking a pass from Andre Burakovsky in the slot and beating Scrivens with a wrist shot
Nugent-Hopkins tied it 20 seconds later, picking off Alex Ovechkin’s pass and beating Braden Holtby. Nikitin put Edmonton ahead on a power play with 3:52 left in the second, firing a shot from the point through traffic.
In the third, Scrivens stopped Ovechkin after he walked around Schultz.
“We did a lot of good things, we just didn’t seem to be able to get a bounce,” Holtby said. “Our team played well enough to get a win. In the end, they won a goaltending battle. Their second goal had no business going in and that was the difference in the game.”
NOTES: The Oilers will play the fourth game of a season-high seven-game homestand Friday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Capitals continue their three-game trip on Saturday night in Calgary. … Washington forward Jay Beagle saw his first action of the season after being sidelined by an injury in the preseason. Beagle subbed in for Brooks Laich, who sustained a shoulder injury Saturday night against Florida.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
