Oilers defeat Wild 4-3 for sixth straight win
Evan Bouchard had two goals and an assist and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Friday night for their sixth straight win.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had four assists as for the Oilers, who have won nine of 12. Stuart Skinner had 17 saves.
With the Oilers on a power play, Bouchard got his second of the night at 1:32 of the third period as he got a centering pass from Draisaitl and fired a one-timer through traffic past Fleury for a 4-3 lead. It was his seventh goal of the season.
"There's plenty of guys that can place a shot in the right position but not many can hammer it like that," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "There's very few that can do both."
After facing Bouchard in practice, Skinner has seen what Bouchard can do with the puck.
"The Bouch bomb, he does have a bomb. It is pretty incredible how hard he can shoot it," the goalie said. "I think he has got potentially the hardest shot in the NHL."
Bouchard now has 27 points in 24 games this season.
Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist, and Joel Eriksson Ek and Connor Dewar also scored as the Wild lost their second straight following a four-game win streak. Marcus Johansson and Brock Faber each had two assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 36 saves.
"I didn't have any problem with the effort," Wild coach John Hynes said. "I thought we were up against it coming into the game, and that's what the schedule is. ... But I really liked the compete and the battle that we had."
Minnesota had several good opportunities late with their goalie pulled but Hartman hit a post and Skinner made a couple of huge stops to preserve the win.
"I think we battled the whole game through and it was a good finish," Skinner said. "It was obviously a big two points."
Bouchard got the Oilers on the scoreboard first with 4:44 left in the opening period to extend his point streak to 10 games. After Edmonton had a couple of shots blocked, Bouchard got a pass from Nugent Hopkins in the right circle and beat Fleury high on the glove side.
The Wild scored twice 26 seconds apart in the opening minute of the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Boldy tied it at 15 seconds as he got the rebound of Faber's point shot and put it past Skinner for his sixth. Eriksson Ek then got a pass from Boldy down low in the right circle and beat Skinner for his 13th.
McDavid tied it at 1:21 with a nifty move as he skated past Fleury on the left side, got the goalie to go down, skated around him and tucked a backhander in from behind the goal line. It was his ninth and extended his point streak to eight games.
Dewar scored on a one-timer from the left circle off Ryan Hartman's pass from behind the goal with 8:02 left in the middle period to put the Wild up 3-2.
Draisaitl tied it on the power play with 1:30 left in the period on a one-timer from the right circle.
Minnesota was without forward Zach Bogosian (upper body) and lost defenseman Jonas Brodin early in the third after taking a hit from behind into the boards by Evander Kane.
