EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — It wasn’t just the usual suspects that helped the Edmonton Oilers break out of their brief funk.
Josh Archibald had a goal and an assist, and Riley Sheahan got the tiebreaking goal in the third period to lift the Oilers to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, snapping a two-game skid.
Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid also each had a goal and an assist as Edmonton won for just the second time in eight games (2-5-1).
“That’s how you win in this league,” Draisaitl said of the contributions from Archibald and Sheahan. “You need your top players to produce, but you need those guys to chip in once in a while too. Huge goals — they played well again tonight.”
Mikko Koskinen stopped 23 shots for Edmonton.
Jeff Petry, Phillip Danault and Max Domi scored for the Canadiens, who had won two straight. Carey Price had 22 saves.
“We beat ourselves,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. “There were some really bad penalties in the offensive zone at bad times and some real bad decisions. Two 2-on-1 goals and I didn’t think we were sharp tonight, simple as that. We battled back and you’re seeing a team that never gave up, but at the end we only have ourselves to look at, we beat ourselves.”
Edmonton led 2-0 and 3-2, with Montreal tying the score twice — the last when Domi skated around Oilers defender Darnell Nurse and beat Koskinen glove side a minute into the third period.
The Oilers regained the lead again just over six minutes later on a 2-on-1 as Archibald got the puck through to Sheahan, who made the most of it to score his third.
Archibald said it was nice to be able to make a difference at a time when the Oilers really needed it, snapping a four-game losing skid on home ice.
“It felt really good. Shea and I have been clicking a little bit as a line. To be able to put a couple on the board felt really good,” he said. “We’ve been playing well lately, but the small things have been hurting us. To have a comeback game like we did tonight and have a full 60 was a good feeling.”
Edmonton got on the scoreboard 90 seconds into the first period as McDavid fed the puck across to Draisaitl on a 2-on-1, and he beat Price for his 22nd of the season, but just his first even-strength tally in 17 games.
Archibald redirected a shot-pass from Ethan Bear into the net for his second 12 minutes into the first to make it 2-0.
Montreal responded a couple minutes later with a short-handed goal as Petry wired a shot that went off Koskinen’s glove and in.
The Canadiens tied it 2-2 on the power play when Danault tipped in Petry’s point shot 8 1/2 minutes into the second.
Edmonton surged back ahead with a power-play goal with 4:20 left in the middle period as McDavid entered the zone at full speed and beat Price with a move to record his 21st.
NOTES: The Oilers came improved to 4-0-0 in the second game of a back-to-back this season. ... Montreal has been hit with a rash of injuries, missing the services of Paul Byron (knee), Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Victor Mete (ankle), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (concussion), Matthew Peca (knee) and Joel Teasdale (knee). ... The only player out injured for the Oilers was Matt Benning (concussion).
UP NEXT
Canadiens: At Winnipeg on Monday night.
Oilers: At Vancouver on Monday night.
