Edmonton 2 Philadelphia 0
EDMONTON — Devan Dubnyk made 35 saves to record his first shutout of the season as the Edmonton Oilers won their second game in a row, surprising the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0 on Thursday.
Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist and Taylor Hall also scored for the Oilers (24-30-6), who have the second-worst record in the NHL.
The Flyers (33-20-7) missed out on a chance to pull into second place in the Eastern Conference.
The highlight of the scoreless first period was a marathon fight between the Oilers’ Darcy Hordichuk and Philadelphia’s Jody Shelley eight minutes into the game.
The Flyers had 14 shots on Devan Dubnyk to Edmonton’s nine on Ilya Bryzgalov in the first.
However, the Oilers had the best chance of the opening period as Hall made a nice backhand feed from behind the net to Ales Hemsky, but Bryzgalov came across his crease quickly to make the stop.
Edmonton broke the deadlock on a power play three-and-a-half minutes in to the second.
Hall was able to find an inch to squeeze the puck between the post and Bryzgalov’s skate for his 22nd of the season and a 1-0 Oilers lead.
Edmonton went up 2-0 eight minutes into the second as Eberle picked up a loose puck and sent a shot from the slot that bounced off of Bryzgalov’s inside pad before trickling across the goal-line.
It was the 27th goal and 60th point this season for the second-year forward.
Late in the period, the Flyers Scott Hartnell was given a kneeing penalty after taking a run at Magnus Paajarvi who had to be helped off the ice with what looked like a knee injury.
Edmonton turned the shots totals around with a 15-6 edge in the second period.
The Flyers came very close to getting on the board five minutes into the third as a Jakub Voracek shot got past Dubnyk but was fished to safety by Oilers defender Tom Gilbert before it crossed the goal-line.
The Oilers were awarded a penalty shot with just under three minutes to play as Kimmo Timonen hauled down Shawn Horcoff on a short-handed breakaway.
Horcoff was stopped on the one-on-one opportunity.
It was Dubnyk’s third career shutout.