New York. The Edmonton Oilers fought it out last night – in more ways than one.
Because the series against the Vegas Golden Knights is shaping up to be a field battle of the pure ’90s variety.
– It’s expected when the score runs out in all matches between division rivals, but today there were some who crossed the line and did things we don’t want to see, goal scorer Matthias Ekholm told Sportbladet about Vegas defender Alex Pietrangelo’s attack on Leon Draistel’s wrists.
It was at the end of the game, when the guests from the Nevada Desert knocked out the goalkeeper in a slightly vain attempt to chase down a 1-4 deficit, that it happened.
The King broke playoff-scoring Leon Dricetel on the counterattack but missed the open square and pulled into the corner – and suddenly support player Alex Pietrangelo came swinging a stick in the air and nibbled the German right above his wrists.
Another Edmonton star Conor McDavid became furious and threw himself at Pietrangelo – who, of course, was punished and sent to the locker room.
– It wasn’t really pretty, said Swedish defender Matthias Ekholm when we spoke to him after the final whistle.
– I hope he’s stopped, because you can’t try to intentionally hurt the best player in the opponent. Then it can happen all the time. He crossed the line there.
The third period was also generally very chaotic. Bad blood in the Pacific Division final boils almost as in the classic Colorado-Detroit brawls of the ’90s.
– Quite expected when two band rivals meet in a series like this, “Ikki” continues.
– But now it has become so that the results in every match go smoothly, except maybe in the first, and then it happens easily.
This was the case last night as well. The Oilers basically decided it with three quick goals in the first period – and they certainly killed it with a fourth goal in the second period.
Yes, it was good to see we came back strong after Monday’s effort. Ekholm thinks we played really well tonight.
The 32-year-old Maas dusted off a smashing shot during a blitz in the opening period – thus scoring his first play-off goal since 2018.
– Yes, I’m known for it not primarily for goals, but I got a good result and of course it’s nice to be able to contribute offensively sometimes.
The next game in the series will be played in Las Vegas on Saturday night – and it’ll be completely kid-free then, too.
