Glendale: Edmonton’s fourth line combined for seven points, Cam Talbot stopped 28 shots and the Oilers beat the Arizona Coyotes in regulation for the first time in 26 games with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.
Arizona had gone 21-0-4 in their previous 25 games against the Oilers, including a pair of wins this season. Edmonton jumped on the Coyotes with two goals in the first period and pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second to beat Arizona for the first time since January 25, 2011.
Arizona’s points streak had been tied for sixth-most against one opponent in NHL history.
Mark Letestu had a goal and two assists, and linemate Matt Hendricks had a goal and an assist. Fellow fourth-liner Zack Kassian had two assists for the Oilers, who have won four of five.
Martin Hanzal had a goal and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored with 6.1 seconds left for the Coyotes, who have lost three straight.
The Oilers got off to a good start in their quest to end the streak against Arizona, scoring midway through the first period.
Letestu had it, one-timing a feed from Kassian to beat Mike Smith to the stick side for his seventh of the season. The Coyotes challenged that Smith was interfered with, but the goal stood after a review.
Edmonton went up 2-0 late in the period on a power play when a shot by Letestu hit Coyotes defenceman Alex Goligoski’s skate, then Milan Lucic’s, and slipped inside the right post.
The Oilers had the Coyotes on their heels to start the second, sending a flurry of shots at Smith. Hendricks scored at the end of it, beating Smith after the puck bounced off the boards out front.
The Coyotes finally showed a glimpse of life on a power play midway through the second, with Hanzal redirecting a shot by Radim Vrbata past Talbot.
Ekman-Larsson scored on a power play in the closing seconds, but the Coyotes didn’t have enough time to score again.
Meanwhile, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds scored in the shootout, Steve Mason made 36 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 also on Wednesday night.
Michael Raffl and Claude Giroux scored in regulation for Philadelphia, who snapped a two-game skid that followed a 10-game winning streak.
Andre Burakovsky and Lars Eller scored in regulation for Washington.
T.J. Oshie converted in the shootout for the Capitals, but Voracek, Philadelphia’s third shooter, beat Braden Holtby to tie it at 1. The tiebreaker went to sudden death when Nicklas Backstrom misfired on Washington’s third attempt.
Simmonds put the Flyers ahead by beating Holtby with a forehand shot, and Mason stopped Justin Williams to end it.
The Flyers improved to 4-3 in shootouts while Washington dropped to 1-3.
The game was the first meeting between the Metropolitan Division rivals since the top-seeded Capitals eliminated the eighth-seeded Flyers in the first round of a contentious play-off series last season.
It also was the first of eight games in their next 15 for the Flyers against division opponents. The Metro features five of the league’s top 10 teams, with Pittsburgh (47 points), the New York Rangers (47) and Columbus (46) just ahead of the Flyers (44) and Capitals (42).
Giroux tied it at 2 with 20.7 seconds left in the second period. The puck landed right on the Flyers captain’s stick after a turnover, and Giroux whizzed a wrist shot past Holtby’s glove for his 10th goal of the season.
Eller scored on a rebound midway through the second period to give Washington a 2-1 lead. Burakovsky started the play with a shot on goal, John Carlson backhanded a follow shot and Eller finished the rebound.
The Flyers had tied the game about 5 1/2 minutes earlier on Raffl’s seventh of the season. Radko Gudas’ shot from the point went wide, and Raffl pounced on the hard carom. His wraparound attempt went off Holtby’s stick and just over the goal line, and the goal was awarded after an officials’ review.
Burakovsky returned after sitting the last three games as a healthy scratch and scored his first goal in more than two months to put the Capitals up 1-0 with 1:36 left in the first period. After the Flyers turned the puck over in their own zone, Dmitry Orlov found a wide-open Burakovsky in the slot. Burakovsky fired past Mason’s blocker for his third tally of the season and first since scoring two goals on October 13 versus Pittsburgh.
Mason and Holtby each made 36 saves in regulation.
