Sekera scores in OT, streaking Oilers beat Bruins 3-2
BOSTON (AP) The Edmonton Oilers weren't trying to hide it. They knew they were lucky to get out of town with a victory.
Andrej Sekera scored 41 seconds into overtime and Cam Talbot stopped 47 shots to lift the Oilers to their sixth straight win, 3-2 over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.
''We're not naive enough to think we were the better team,'' Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. ''We'll put it in the bank and get out of here as quick as we can.''
Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored first-period goals for Edmonton. The victory halted an eight-game losing streak in Boston for the Oilers, fresh off a 5-0 homestand - their best since 1987.
''We've won games this year that we definitely didn't deserve to win and this is one of those ones we probably should have won,'' said Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who tied the score with just under 5 minutes to play in regulation.
The Oilers won the overtime faceoff, rushed into the Boston zone and controlled the puck the entire time before Sekera won it with a wrister from the slot after backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson stopped one shot.
''For some reason when you're in the offensive zone you never get tired,'' Sekera said. ''You get tired when you lose the puck and you have to go back to backcheck. Especially 3-on-3, it's fun when you have the puck. It's not so much fun when you don't have the puck.''
Matt Beleskey also scored for Boston, which has earned at least one point in each of its last 16 games against the Oilers (13-0-3).
''We had to fight back, but their goaltender stood tall and we just kept going after them and found a way to get ourselves back into the game and get ourselves at least a point,'' Boston coach Claude Julien said.
Gustavsson made 21 saves. Top goalie Tuukka Rask had the night off in the midst of a hot stretch, posting a 6-0-2 mark in his last eight starts.
The Oilers entered 4-10-1 on the road.
''We're a smart group of players,'' McLellan said. ''We know we stole one here tonight - our goaltender played a tremendous game for us.''
Marchand tied it with a rising wrister inside the left post from the right circle. It was his team-leading 15th of the season. Edmonton challenged that Boston was offside, but the call stood.
The Bruins had excellent scoring chances in the opening minutes of the game, but the Oilers grabbed a 1-0 lead when Eberle scored off a rebound from the edge of the crease at 8:29 of the first period.
In the initial 6 1/2 minutes, Talbot came across the crease to make a sliding pad stop off the rebound of Beleskey's shot when the puck caromed off a skate. He also made a right-pad save on Brett Connolly's wrister from the right circle, and Torey Krug unloaded a shot off the crossbar before Eberle's goal.
Edmonton made it 2-0 when Nugent-Hopkins scored on his own rebound 13:58 into the first. Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara lost his balance trying to play a puck in the corner, and Eberle set up Nugent-Hopkins in the slot.
The Bruins got a break when Beleskey's soft shot slipped between Talbot's body and the left post, slicing it to 2-1 late in the second.
Edmonton was held without a shot on goal for nearly 17 minutes in the second.
NOTES: Oilers president and general manager Peter Chiarelli was with the team. It was his first game in TD Garden since the Bruins fired him as GM after not making the playoffs last season. ... Boston lost the only other regular-season meeting between the teams this season, 3-2 in a shootout at Edmonton on Dec. 2. ... Edmonton D Nikita Nikitin was recalled last Thursday after being cut following training camp. He played his first game of the season Monday. ''I thought Niki was fine,'' McLellan said. ''Let's face it, that's not an easy one to play. If you're Bobby Orr that's not an easy one to play. We spent a lot of time in our zone.'' ... The Bruins host Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Edmonton faces the Rangers on Tuesday, the second game of a four-game road trip.
