Forty-seven seconds was all Bouchard needed
Edmonton made it harder than it had to be. Up 2-0 midway through the second period at Rogers Place, the Oilers let Philadelphia crawl back level, then settled it almost before overtime had started. Evan Bouchard took 47 seconds to beat Dan Vladar and seal a 3-2 win overnight.
It was Bouchard’s 11th goal of the season and his second overtime winner already. The defenseman also set up one of Zach Hyman’s two goals, so his fingerprints were on most of what Edmonton did right. Tristan Jarry stopped 30 shots at the other end.
The result lifts the Oilers to 14-3-3 and 31 points through 20 games. Only one Edmonton team has done better at this stage: the 1983-84 side, with 33 points. The 1984-85 group also had 31. Those are not bad clubs to be sitting alongside.
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McDavid joins a club of four
Connor McDavid didn’t score, and still walked out with a piece of history. His primary assist on Hyman’s power-play goal, late in the second, made him only the fourth player in NHL history to open a season with a 20-game point streak. Nobody had managed it since Dany Heatley with Ottawa in 2005-06.
The play itself was simple. McDavid found Hyman parked at the top of the crease, Vladar made the first save, and Hyman backhanded the rebound in. Ten minutes earlier Hyman had opened the scoring by sitting in the right spot when a Mattias Ekholm shot from the point missed the net and kicked straight to him.
That double matters for Hyman. He scored 31 goals in 58 games last season but arrived with one goal and one assist this year, after a possible concussion and a neck problem cost him 11 of Edmonton’s first 19 games. It was his first multi-goal night since March 6.
Flyers keep finding points
Philadelphia’s comeback started with a Jarry tripping penalty on Noel Acciari. Tyson Foerster punished it, finishing an Owen Tippett feed from the left circle. Travis Sanheim then tied it with 8:18 left in regulation, squeezing a shot in from almost the goal line. Vladar made 21 saves, and the Flyers have now taken points in three straight games (1-0-2).
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