Vasily Podkolzin roofed a backhand shot from the front of the crease with 1:09 remaining as the Edmonton Oilers rallied from a 5-3 third-period deficit to defeat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 6-5 on Thursday night.
It was the first goal of the season for Podkolzin, who also had an assist.
Connor McDavid had three assists, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist and David Tomasek, Adam Henrique, Andrew Mangiapane and Leon Draisaitl also scored for Edmonton, which won its second straight game. Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman each added two assists and Calvin Pickard made 22 saves for the Oilers.
Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook each scored two goals, Lane Hutson and Oliver Kapanen each had two assists and Josh Anderson also scored a goal for Montreal, which lost for just the second time in eight games. Sam Montembeault finished with 23 saves.
Montreal, playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 2-1 overtime victory at Calgary on Wednesday, took a 1-0 lead at the 7:28 mark of the first period when Newhook buried a rebound off a Hutson shot.
Edmonton tied it near the end of the period on Tomasek’s first NHL goal, a slap shot from the top of the left circle that caromed off the skate of Newhook and inside the far-right post.
The Oilers built a 3-1 lead midway through the second period on goals by Henrique, a high slot redirect of a Walman shot, followed by Mangiapane’s third goal of the season, a wrist shot past Montembeault’s blocker from the right side of the crease off a no-look backhand pass from Nurse behind the net.
The Canadiens rallied to take a 4-3 lead near the end of the period with three goals in the span of 1:52. Anderson started the comeback when he roofed a shot over Pickard’s glove from the slot. Caufield then followed with two goals in 49 seconds, the first when he jammed a shot inside the left post off a long pass from the right point by Noah Dobson, and the second on a wrist shot from the right circle past Pickard’s blocker side.
Newhook extended Montreal’s lead to 5-3 early in the third period when he snapped in a wrist shot from the low slot. But Edmonton responded with a pair of power-play goals by Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins, both off McDavid setups, in a 58-second span midway through the period to tie it, setting the stage for Podkolzin’s game-winner.
