Hurricanes can’t contain slick Oilers in 7-3 loss

Leon Draisaitl leads Edmonton with four-point night

Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network

By Peter Koutroumpis

editor@trianglesportsnet.com

RALEIGH, N.C. – The 10,554 in attendance at PNC Arena witnessed a gusher of scoring on Tuesday.

Unfortunately for the host Carolina Hurricanes, the majority of pucks that crossed the goal line were deposited into their net and resulted in a 7-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

Leon Draisaitl led the Oilers with a goal and three assists as seven different skaters netted single markers, including Drake Caggiula, Matt Benning, Ryan Strome, Pontus Aberg, Yohann Auvitu, and Jessie Puljujarvi.

Edmonton goaltender Cam Talbot earned the win with a 28-save effort, while captain Connor McDavid posted an assist which pushed his point total on the season to 90, and into second place in the NHL scoring race behind Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kutcherov.

Brock McGinn, Sebastian Aho, and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes, not enough to help starting goaltender Scott Darling who finished with 23 saves in the losing effort.

Boxscore – Edmonton 7, Carolina 3 – NHL GameCenter (NHL.com)

“It got away early,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said.

Though noting the Hurricanes trailed by a goal at points, 3-2 in the first and 4-3 early in the second, the coach simply stated his team “never really got a spark, never really got engaged.”

Following a successful start on Sunday in a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders, Darling had a chance to post back-to-back victories.

However, it was another five-plus goal-against outing which the netminder and his teammates felt the sting of once more this season.

Peters didn’t see the blame falling on one individual though.

“It’s on the team, it’s on all of us – its on the coaches, its on the players, its on us as the group,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a guy in there that’s proud of his game tonight, I wouldn’t think.”

Peter Koutroumpis: 401-323-8960, @pksport