EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers had collected seven of eight possible points since their last loss, and trucked through January playing .750 hockey. But truth be told, they hadn’t loved their game of late, and we all know where that road leads to.
On Saturday, they hit the Woll. Joseph Woll, to be exact, the Toronto Maple Leaf who was the best goalie on the ice by a large margin in a 4-3 Toronto win that careened frenetically to the final buzzer, with Woll making a diving glove save on Corey Perry on a shot that that may or may not have crossed the line in time. In the end, the Oilers made one too many mistakes, gave up one too many juicy rebounds, and stepped offside one too many times to pull out a point that they likely deserved.
In a game where they outshot the Maple Leafs 48-28 — ripping more shots on Woll’s net than the Leafs’ total of shots on goal and shots that missed or were blocked — the Oilers simply ran out of clock. “If we make less mistakes then we are probably going to win the game, that’s what it comes down to,” said Leon Draisaitl, who was denied his league-leading 37th goal on an offside review late in the third. “Obviously the shots will tell you the same and chances (25-16 for Edmonton) probably will as well.
Not a bad game, (but) it is tough to go down three goals twice.” Falling behind 3-0 by the 12:50 mark of the game, Edmonton hung around. The difference was, in the end, that the Leafs cashed in during their more brief periods of .
