The Edmonton Oilers suffered their fifth straight loss Saturday night, falling 3-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes at Rogers Place.
With Zack Kassian in the box for boarding, Sebastian Aho jammed in his own rebound for a power play marker. It was the 14th time in the last 17 games the Oilers had allowed the first goal.
The Hurricanes went up 2-0 on mid-range wrister by Nino Niederreiter six minutes into the second. The Oilers finally broke through halfway through the second when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins sniped his third of the season.
Carolina applied tons of pressure late in the second. Tyson Barrie lifted Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s stick to save a goal. Less than 30 seconds later, Koskinen stopped Steven Lorentz in tight. The Hurricanes outshot the Oilers 14-4 in the second.
“We tried making plays, we tried blasting it through (Andersen), but he was good,” Connor McDavid said. “We weren’t sharp enough around the net. That’s the way it goes.”
During the Oilers second power play of the third, Zach Hyman missed an open net off the rebound from a Nugent-Hopkins’ shot. Seconds later, Connor McDavid was all alone in the slot, but shot it just wide.
“Our sense of urgency has to go up,” McDavid said after the game. “A good start buys us a slump, and we’ve used our slump here.”
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With 2:44 left, Mikko Koskinen misplayed the puck behind his own net, giving Aho a tap-in goal.
“When you’re not scoring at the level you’d like to, it magnifies that (mistake) too,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “We feel like we’re working so hard for our goals right now and then you give up an easy one and that drags the group.”
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Hyman was hit into the boards by Brady Skjei with just over three minutes left in the game and didn’t play another shift.
“They took him into precautionary so he didn’t play the rest of the game, but I haven’t talked to him yet,” Tippett said, adding he expects an update on Hyman’s status on Sunday.
The Oilers, 16-10, will host Toronto on Tuesday.
With files from Brenden Escott, 630 CHED
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