Oilers Beat Bruins In Shootout
Eberle wristed his shootout attempt into the top corner, giving the Oilers a 3-2 victory. It was just Edmonton's second win against the Bruins since the 2001-02 season, both of which came via the shootout.
Rask made a highlight-reel stop to deny Eberle in the second period. First, Rask laid out to stop left winger Taylor Hall on a breakaway, and then Rask reached out to get the tip of his glove on Eberle's rebound attempt.
"It gives you confidence," Eberle said of beating Rask to decide the game. "I know it's a shootout, but any time you put the puck in the net, it's great. I had a couple of great chances, I still can't believe he saved that one, it just nicked his glove."
The Bruins' five-game winning streak ended.
"We were average tonight," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "Our skating game was there, but we didn't play a real hard game tonight, and that's what we need to do. We needed to play hard against this team, and we chose to play a little bit more their type of game."
Bottom-six forwards Matt Hendricks and Mark Letestu had a goal and an assist each for Edmonton.
"We have talked a lot about the bottom six trying to add a little bit of offense to help the big guns out," Hendricks said. "We've kind of been a one-line punching monster right now. And you're not going to win a lot of games when you're only getting production from one of your top lines."
Letestu, who was a game-time decision due to an undisclosed injury, gave the home team the 1-0 lead with a short-handed marker at 10:23 of the second period. It was the Oilers' first short-handed goal of the season, and the first goal the Bruins surrendered this year while on the man advantage.
Letestu finished off a perfect pass from Hendricks on a two-on-one break that was launched when linesman Trent Knorr got mixed up with several Bruins on the boards, freeing the two Oilers to launch the counterattack.
On that same power play, Bruins defensemen Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara each rang shots off the post.
The Bruins tied the score at 1 at 18:27 when Krug's shot from the side boards hit Oilers defenseman Andrej Sekera in front of the goal and caromed into the net.
Hendricks tipped home Letestu's pass at 9:22 of the third period to give the Oilers the 2-1 lead.
The Oilers were just 3:21 away from beating the Bruins in regulation for the first time in 15 years, nursing a 2-1 lead. But Chara snuck in off the point and snapped home the equalizer off a clever feed from center David Krejci to tie it at 2 and force overtime.
Despite the goal, Chara didn't leave the rink with a good feeling.
"They're a very dangerous team, and we didn't have our best game, we need to be better," Chara said. "We certainly need to work hard, winning more battles and races, and it just wasn't good enough. We got a point out of it, but I think we have to realize that if we keep playing like this, it's just a matter of time before we're going to burn ourselves."
Rask and Oilers goalie Anders Nilsson each had strong games. Nilsson made 38 saves, while Rask finished with 34 saves. Nilsson also was perfect in the shootout.
"Me, I'm just trying to be patient and, for some shots, I've been lucky and some shots they've missed the net," said Nilsson. "So I'm just trying to be patient and not bite too hard on the first move."
NOTES: Oilers LW Benoit Pouliot did not play due to a lower-body injury. ... On injured reserve for the Oilers are C Connor McDavid (broken clavicle), LW Rob Klinkhammer (undisclosed) and RW Nail Yakupov (ankle). ... Bruins C Chris Kelly (leg) and RW David Pastrnak (foot) are on injured reserve. ... Bruins D Kevan Miller was out with a concussion. ... The Bruins scratched RW Tyler Randell and D Joe Morrow. ... The Oilers scratched D Andrew Ference and D Brandon Davidson. ... On the morning of the game, third-level seats regularly priced at $65 Canadian were being offered on StubHub for less than $14 Canadian.