Oilers 4 Canadiens 3 (OT)
MONTREAL — Dustin Penner got a little bit of payback on Carey Price, and the Edmonton Oilers continued their surprising run through Eastern Canada.
Penner scored in overtime to lead the Edmonton Oilers to their second straight win, 4-3 over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
Penner took advantage of a giveaway when Montreal defenceman P.K Subban sent a pass that Mike Cammalleri couldn’t handle. Penner beat Price unassisted for his seventh goal of the season.
“I like to think it was karma because of the saves that Price made on me earlier, with a chance like that especially in overtime, the puck was rolling and I kind of just sprinted towards it,” Penner said. “I just made sure I knocked it ahead, it was a play that you see happen a lot in overtime.”
Subban had a rough night, as he was also burned by Sam Gagner on Edmonton’s short-handed game-tying goal.
“It’s a tough one to lose, it was a tough one for me I know I made some costly mistakes out there,” Subban said. “You learn from it, you learn you can’t be complacent, you can’t take your foot off the pedal and you just get ready for the next game now.”
The tide seemed to turn for the Oilers when Tom Renney called a time out to try to change the momentum of the game.
“I took a chance because I knew there was a television timeout coming anyways, but just to come things down a little bit and behind the bench we had all the faith in the world in them,” Renney said. “They’re sincere, this group is sincere about doing the right things and that’s fun to coach.”
Ales Hemsky and Gagner both had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who won back-to-back games for the first time since the first week of the season. Edmonton was coming off a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
“It’s exciting, we were fighting pretty hard in the third and to be able to comeback, we’ve had struggles following up wins with wins,” Gagner said. “To come back to tie the game and have Pens win it was huge.”
Defenceman Kurtis Foster also scored for the Oilers, who will try to make it an Eastern Canadian sweep Thursday when they meet the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre.
Scott Gomez, Mathieu Darche and Roman Hamrlik scored for the Canadiens.
Devan Dubnyk was solid in goal for the Oilers, making 36 saves.
Price stopped 32 shots for the Canadiens.
Edmonton was trailing by two goals heading into the third period, but Hemsky and Gagne brought the Oilers level.
Hemsky scored at 10:09 of the period on a scramble in front of the net.
It was Hemsky’s first game since November 23rd because of a nagging groin injury.
“That first game is probably the toughest coming back,” said Gagner. “Obviously he was pretty dynamic offensively out there today.”
Gagner tied the game with a short-handed goal with 7:13 remaining in regulation. After Subban failed on his gamble to keep the puck in the offensive zone, Gagner received the puck went in alone and roofed the puck over Price’s glove.
Montreal got on the board at 13:05 of the first period on a fortunate bounce. During a power play, Gomez attempted a pass to Darche who was standing in front of the net, but it went off Ryan Whitney’s stick and went between Dubnyk’s legs.
It was Gomez’s third goal of the year and first since Nov. 11.
The Oilers got the goal back with a power-play goal of their own right before the end of the period. Gagner sent a pass to Foster who ripped the puck past Price’s glove.
Montreal continued to click with the man advantage to start in the second period. Mike Cammalleri tried to tuck the puck in on the left side of the net, and the rebound squirted out to Darche who tapped it in.
The Canadiens got another good bounce to go up by two before the end of the period. Benoit Pouliot threw the puck towards the net, and the bouncing puck hit a defender, then Dubnyk and finally found its way on to Hamrlik’s stick. He scored to earn his 600th career point.
Montreal has cooled down as of late and are 6-4-0 in its last 10 games.
“You know I think we could have been better starting in the second period,” Cammalleri said. “I think it was a gradual snowball effect of us not playing great.”
The Habs play the New Jersey Devils on the road Thursday.
Notes: Prior to the game Edmonton sent Martin Gerber back down to the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League. Gerber played in two games with the big club and only allowed three goals on 60 shots and picked up victories in both games... Yannick Weber remained a healthy scratch for Montreal and has only played two games since being called up from the Hamilton Bulldogs on November 17th...Carey Price was awarded the Molson Cup for the month of November. It’s the second consecutive month that he is the recipient of he award... Following their Grey Cup parade earlier in the day, the Montreal Alouettes were on hand and brought the trophy onto the ice just before puck drop... Jaroslav Spacek was playing in his 800th career NHL game.