Saturday night’s match up was a highly anticipated tilt between two Western conference contenders. The two teams hadn’t met so far this season, but this rematch of the 2022 Western Conference Final set Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon against each other on Hockey Night in Canada as their respective squad vied for valuable points in the race to secure home ice and divisional championships. In net, both squads were going with their best, with Stuart Skinner starting for Kris Knoblauch and Alexander Georgiev going for Jared Bednar.
Colorado opens the scoring
Brett Kulak makes a bad read pinching up on the play leading to a two-on-one. Because Cody Ceci was as wide as he started, Sean Walker basically has a breakaway while the Oilers’ dman tries to cut his angle off. Walker waits until the pressure comes, and fire a perfect shot just outside Skinner’s blocker, just over the pad and just inside the post. Skinner has a fraction of backwards momentum that limits him from reacting as efficently as he could have as he pulls off the puck a bit.
Edmonton goal called back
Darnell Nurse takes a point shot that gets redirect by Leon Draisaitl in the high slot on net through traffic. Georgiev makes the first save but has no idea where the rebound goes. He inexplicably starts to recover to his feet before Zach Hyman kicks it in below him.
Foegele scores for Edmonton
Warren Foegele makes a good play to keep the puck inside the blue line. After Jack Johnson blindly fire a rebound to the point, Evan Bouchard fires it right back and finds Foegele’s stick. Georgiev had collapsed down towards the ice, allowing the tip to beat him over the glove. If he extends towards the stick blade, that puck likely hits him.
Carrick with his first as an Oiler
Edmonton’s fourth line gets a cycle going low in the Avalanche zone. Corey Perry kicks it up to Mattias Janmark, who is skating away from the net as Sam Carrick causes traffic for Georgiev to look over. When Janmark releases what looks like a pass for Perry on the back door, Samuel Girard partially breaks it up and it bounces off Josh Manson’s skate. As this is happening, Georgiev widens his stance and retreats towards the goal line. Carrick is able to spin and find the puck before Georgiev can re set and get square, allowing space for the shot on the glove side while the Colorado netminder sprawls to get back.
Colorado ties it up
Earlier in the play, Ceci had uncontested and unpressured possession and was not able to get a clean break out. After Colorado cycles in the d zone, Casey Mittlestadt walks around the net and finds Walker in the slot. Between Ceci fully commiting to his man in zone defence, and whoever was the defensive F1 on the shift (I think it was McDavid, especially since Walker skates by him), someone needs to cover the unchecked man.
Skinner starts the pass in reverse VH on his glove post. He gets a good rotation, but it looks like he originally squared up to the net front guy in Artturi Lehkonen, and is left reaching back without being square to Walker on the back door. He does a good job at closing on the puck to make an attempt on the save, but Walker has a great finish just inside the post again.
Georgiev save
Draisaitl makes a great play to spring Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the breakaway. Georgiev gets a lot of depth and carries that momentum backwards. Nuge doesn’t really make much in the way of fakes, but still makes an effective move going to he back hand and getting some air under his shot. However, Georgiev makes a great save, closing on the puck with glove and not allowing it to go anywhere.
Colorado wins the game
Cale Makar misses a stretch pass to MacKinnon with six seconds left. The puck goes into the corner with Bouchard in pursuit. He does a good job at closing on MacKinnon and keeping him to the outside, but could have used maybe a little more urgency to prevent him from getting full possession. In one motion, MacKinnon spins and fires a blind pass to the net front. Draisaitl is late getting back to Lehkonen, who beats Skinner under the arm. Skinner over estimates the shot between his extension and small push, and likely could have opted for a block with a shot from that in tight.
Skinner was great but couldn’t carry the team
Both goalies were phenomenal in this game. In my opinion, Colorado had the better chances and more quantity, but Skinner was able to pass a massive test when it comes to assessing whether he’ll be up to the task come playoff time. It was interesting that all three pucks that got behind Georgiev involved net play on broken plays, showing a potential exposure point for the next two match ups between the teams.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
