The Edmonton Oilers’ troubles continued Monday night, suffering a 4-1 loss on the road against the New York Rangers.
For the 20th time in their last 24 games, the Oilers allowed the first goal of the game. Five and a half minutes later, Oilers goalkeeper Mikko Koskinen misplayed the puck behind the net, leading to a goal from Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said after the game.
“Our goalkeeper was not very good and we didn’t find enough discs at the end to get back in the game.”
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The Rangers increased the lead early in the second when Lafreniere set up Barclay Goodrow for his seventh goal of the season.
Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan McLeod (71) celebrates his goal against New York Rangers goalkeeper Alexandar Georgiev (40) during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in New York.
AP Photo / John Munson
After the Rangers missed a pair of golden opportunities to extend their lead, Oilers forward Tyler Benson set Ryan McLeod up for his fourth with 6:00 left in the second.
“We’ve been losing every game so far, so it’s been difficult to get back into games when teams are playing pretty tight against us,” McLeod said.
“Hopefully next time we can get the first one and start rolling.”
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In the third, Rangers forward Chris Krieder scored a point on a power play. The puck hit Koskinen in the chest, but then he fell, trickled down his legs and into the net.
Chris Kreider (20) of the New York Rangers celebrates his power play goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in New York. The Rangers won 4-1.
AP Photo / John Munson
With less than six minutes to go, New York forward Ryan Strome’s pass deflected from Edmonton defender Tyson Barrie to make it 4-1.
The Oilers are 2-8-2 in their last 12 games and 18-13-2 on the season. They will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
“I think there is a lot of adversity – (we are) learning a lot about our team,” Tippett said. “We have been through a lot of injury problems, COVID problems (-19).
“We have not played as well as we would like as a group. There is a lot to improve. “
–With files from James Dunn, 630 CHED
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