GAME STORY: Leafs 4, Oilers 3

FIRST BLOOD

Just before the midway point of the opening frame, Mikko Koskinen went to play the puck behind the Oilers net, but his pass attempt was intercepted by Travis Boyd, who found Jason Spezza in front and the veteran’s backhand shot squeaked through Koskinen’s pads to give the visiting Leafs a 1-0 advantage.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Toronto extended its lead to 2-0 on the power play late in the first period, displaying some impressive hand-eye coordination in the process. Captain John Tavares knocked down an errant puck with his stick in the slot, pounced on the loose puck and found William Nylander camped out at the side of the net with a perfect backhand pass for a no-doubt one-timer goal.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Koskinen made the best of his 23 saves late in the third period as Matthews found Mitch Marner streaking to the net but the big Finn stuck his skate out for the denial to keep the Oilers within a goal heading into the home stretch.

TURNING POINT

The Oilers and Leafs alternated four goals in a span of 6:36 in the final frame, but the knockout punch was delivered by Matthews on the power play as the 2016 first-overall pick unleashed a laser-beam through traffic for his fifth of the season that ended up as the game-winner.

Video: POST-RAW | Connor McDavid 01.28.21

TOP PERFORMER

Draisaitl displayed his reigning league MVP dominance, scoring a pair of power-play markers and coming within mere inches of several more as he extended his goal streak to five games for the third time in his career. The German led all skaters with 27:57 TOI on the night and recorded six shots, in addition to tallying his fifth and sixth goals of the season.

NEXT UP

The Oilers and Leafs will square off again at Rogers Place on Saturday at 5pm MT for their fourth of nine meetings this season, and Edmonton will complete its weekend back-to-back when the Ottawa Senators visit on Sunday at 7pm MT for their first of two in a row.

Video: POST-RAW | Dave Tippett 01.28.21

PARTING WORDS

“That’s on me, I made a bad play and it was costly for us,” Koskinen said of Spezza’s opening goal.

“Kind of a weird game, but our game wasn’t where it needed to be at all,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said of the matchup that included 11 power plays combined for the two teams.

“We’re nine games in, I think we’re done figuring it out. We need to start putting together games,” McDavid said of the team’s 3-6-0 start to the condensed 56-game season.

“After the second period where we got a bunch of power plays, you know they’re looking to give us a penalty, and we still wanted to slash people and hook people. You’re tempting fate,” Head Coach Dave Tippett said of Edmonton’s four PPs in the middle frame followed by three penalties in the third.