Oilers erupt for 7 to beat Bruins
EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers erupted for seven goals for the second straight game on Thursday, pounding the Boston Bruins 7-4 just two days after lighting up the Dallas Stars 7-1.
It's the first time the Oilers have scored seven or more goals in back-to-back home games since December 1988 (10-6 over the Rangers and 8-3 over the Quebec Nordiques).
The Oilers had six different goal scorers, including three on the power play against the No. 1 penalty killing team in the NHL, to leapfrog the Calgary Flames and move into third place in the Pacific Division standings with 83 points.
Patrick Maroon scored twice and Benoit Pouliot, Anton Slepyshev, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Milan Lucic lit the lamp for the Oilers.
David Pasternak, Brad Marchand, Dominic Moore and David Krejci scored for the Bruins.
The Oilers scored three goals on their first six shots to take a 3-0 lead by the 8:23 mark of the first period.
Maroon, who had a hat trick in Edmonton's last meeting with Boston, made it 1-0 on a power play one-timer at 4:29 and 2-0 on a pass from Connor McDavid just 59 seconds later.
Three minutes after that, Pouliot scored his second goal in two games (after scoring just one on the previous 31 games) to put the Oilers in control.
The Bruins showed why they were 12-3-0 since Bruce Cassidy took over as interim head coach, though, scoring a pair of their own (Pastrnak at 12:29 and Marchand at 17:44) to close the gap.
Slepyshev scored at 19:09 to make it 4-2 Oilers at the first intermission.
The goal-scoring frenzy continued in the second period.
Nugent-Hopkins made it 5-2 at 2:06, spelling the end for Boston goalie Tuukka Rask, who made only 12 saves.
Moore replied with a short-handed goal at 4:17 to make it 5-3. Draisaitl restored the Oilers' three-goal lead at 6:46, Lucic scored at 14:49 at make it 7-3, and Krejci converted on a two-man advantage at 19:28 to make it 7-4 after 40 minutes.
NOTES: Bruins RW David Pastrnak's 31st goal of 2016-17 ties Patrice Bergeron (2005-06) for second most in a season by a Bruins player 20 years old or younger. ... Oilers RW Leon Draisaitl surpassed Marco Sturm for most points in a season by a German-born player. Sturm had 59 with the Bruins in 2005-06. ... Oilers C Connor McDavid has 23 multi-point games this season, the most in the NHL. ... Oilers G Cam Talbot has appeared in an NHL high 63 games this season. He leads the NHL in minutes played (3,741), in saves (1,670) and is fourth in wins (35). ... The Oilers finish the season with a 14-15-3 record against the Eastern Conference. ... Boston LW Brad Marchand has 20 goals in the last 21 games. ... The Bruins are 45-19-6-3 all-time against the Oilers. ... Bruins D Zdeno Chara is plus-219 for his NHL career, which is third among all active players. ... LW Matt Beleskey got hit in the face with a Bergeron slap shot with 11 seconds left in the game.