Oilers rally in 3rd, defeat Maple Leafs for 11th straight win

Ryan McLeod scored the go-ahead goal with 3:05 left in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers rallied for their 11th straight win, 4-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

McLeod put Edmonton in front when he collected Cody Ceci’s rebound behind the net, skated out in front and sent a wrist shot past Martin Jones.

“I was looking pass the whole way. I drifted a little bit out and at the last second looked at the net and saw a little lane and took it and it went in,” said McLeod, who also had an assist after missing one game due to illness. “I just try to get to the net as much as I can, and luckily I got a little wrap and a little bit of room. Connor (McDavid) kind of pulled everyone to him, so it worked out well.

“It was a great atmosphere. They had a lot of fans in here too. It was high intensity. It was like a playoff game is. It was really fun.”

Derek Ryan tied it earlier in the third, and Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard scored for the Oilers (24-15-1), who extended their franchise-record win streak despite trailing by two goals in the second period. Stuart Skinner made 25 saves.

“I thought it was a competitive, good hockey game,” Draisaitl said. “It’s a good team over there, lots of skill and they defend really well actually for how much skill they have. Obviously, we showed some composure again and stuck with it, so it’s another huge win for us.

“If you do it a couple of times and you win a couple of games late, you build trust in that and you build that level of comfort in knowing there’s no rush to open it up and score in the first minute of the third period to tie it up. I think it’s just a maturity level that we’re reaching that obviously needs to continue to develop and get better.”

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist, and Pontus Holmberg had two assists for the Maple Leafs (21-13-8), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1). Jones made 28 saves.

Toronto held a 2-1 lead after the second period but gave up three goals in the third in a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.

“Obviously [we’re ticked] off about it, but all these games we’ve been playing, we’ve played some really good hockey,” Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner said. “We’ve just given them back. We’ve had a lot of chances to extend leads in games and haven’t done a good job of that.

“I thought we played pretty good defensively again tonight, but just a little slip up here and there. They’ve got a lot of skill that can make things happen.”

Matthews gave Toronto a 1-0 lead just 27 seconds into the first period with a shot from the edge of the left face-off circle after a cross-ice feed from Marner. It was Matthews’ NHL-leading 34th goal of the season.

“We did a lot of good things. We ran into a good team playing with a lot of confidence,” Matthews said. “It’s frustrating.

“Obviously we’d like to not be giving up these leads, but I think on the positive side, there’s a lot of good things that we are doing, and it’s just a matter of being consistent executing on some of these opportunities that we have later in games.”

Morgan Rielly made it 2-0 at 10:52 of the second period, knocking in a loose puck from the top of the left circle.

Draisaitl cut it to 2-1 at 15:41 on a backhand from the right circle for his 21st goal of the season.

“I just didn’t see him shoot it. I was about to get up off my post and it just slipped in there,” Jones said. “Disappointing, obviously, when you lose giving up a lead. But it was a really good game.

“We did a lot of good things. The difference is executing on one play at the end of the game. They did and we didn’t.”

Ryan tied it 2-2 at 2:27 of the third, one-timing a feed from behind the net by McLeod.

Bouchard scored an empty-net goal at 18:27 for the 4-2 final.

“Once again, you don’t find a way to win a game when you’ve got a lead and that burns here, especially on a night like this where I thought our guys played a really good hockey game,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “They played very hard. Ultimately, when you’re not scoring like we aren’t scoring here in this little stretch, you’ve got to find ways to win 2-1. And that’s tough to do, especially in this building against that team.”